


I've Just Seen A Face

by BeautifulSinner



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, bc ig a hot alien is just in love w her now, but she's already in love w lena, kara is a clueless alien who doesn't speak english, like really doesn't understand, she doesn't understand what's happening, she's also just a useless lesbian, who's having a never ending gay panic attack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 50,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23897521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautifulSinner/pseuds/BeautifulSinner
Summary: Lena hated herself; she hated herself for just watching as her mother died besides her, she hated herself for not being able to save her father, she hated herself for not being able to save those thousands of innocent lives taken by Lex, she hated herself for betraying her family and for breaking Jack's heart. She hated herself for breathing, she hated herself for existing when everybody around her either died or left. She was cursed, just like her mother had said.So now she was here, twenty-four years old and all alone with not a soul to talk to, touch-starved and possibly senile as she drank away her memories one glass of wine at a time.And maybe that's why, when a meteorite - small in comparison to the vast of the quickly darkening sky but made up for by the colourful flames that brightened the sea of blue around it as it trailed behind the meteorite - caught in the corner of Lena's vision, the young woman couldn't help but do a triple take and then promptly fall off her couch.Or,Kara is much older when her planet dies and she's sent to Earth to look after her baby cousin, and instead of Superman finding her, Lena Luthor does.
Relationships: Alex Danvers & Maggie Sawyer, Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 267
Kudos: 1259





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea at like 3 in the morning and just couldn't stop writing it? I haven't slept in a really fucking long time and idk where this stories going. But I thought I'd share with the class ((:
> 
> And yes, the title of this story is after the song I've Just Seen A Face by The Beatles. If you haven't heard it you should bc it's a fucking slapper.

Lena Lillian Luthor is four years old when her mother dies.

She watches her from her pastel pink highchair as her mother sets down a bowl of Cheerios in front of her, her smooth pale hands shaking as she approaches the table and the tan coloured cereal quivering in the milk as she sets it down half hazardously on the wood in front of Lena. She watches as the milk spills over the brim of the bowl and streams down to pool on mahogany wood. Her clear emerald eyes, the same ones that grown-ups three times her size always tell her belong to her mother (whatever that meant) observed the milk as it pooled around the table, stretching out over crimson wood before reaching it's limit at the edge of her pinky. 

She was silent as her mother's voice, thick with an Irish accent and raspy from to many years of smoking, mumbled something inaudible to her before she fell to the stone ground besides her, the clattering of a chair she had been leaning her weight on falling with her. Lena watched in rapt silence, her head tilted and her eyes wide as her mother's body convulsed against the floor. She watched without a word as white foam oozed out of the woman's petal pink lips and dripped down her sculpted cheek bones, mixing with the silent tears leaking from emerald green eyes that slowly dimmed as the life left them. 

Lena stayed quiet, tears leaking from her own eyes as the world around her fell silent. All she could hear was white noise as her mind played her mother's mumbled words on repeat in her head, trying to decipher what she had said to the young girl before falling to the ground. She couldn't make sense of it, but she'd try to, every night that she laid in bed praying for sleep to take hold of her for the next twenty years of her life.

Lena's life falls silent after that. Deadly silent. 

It takes 34 hours for someone - her mother's best friend (possibly more than a best friend,) who had a soothing, angelic voice and vibrant red hair that always reminded Lena of autumn leaves turning crimson during the last days of spring - to come and find Lena and her mother. Her mother, who's body had turned as stiff as the stone she laid on, her eyes wide and unwavering as they stare at the ceiling above her. And Lena, who had crawled down from her highchair to sit next to her mother's lifeless body. Her tiny pale hand holding the much larger, stiff, freezing, almost blue one in her own. 

Her name was Lilith, Lena remembered because it was her middle name for four years of her life. Lilith didn't scream when she came barging in through the door, words on the tip of her tongue about how many times she had called and was starting to worry. She didn't scream, but she did sob. The second that her baby blue eyes fell on the sight in front of her, a sob bubbled up past her lips and she came running to Lena's side, picking the girl up in her arms like she weighed nothing and turning her away from the sight of her mother for the first time in 34 hours. Lena let her, just buried her face in the thick red waves she had grown familiar with as Lilith cried into her phone as a stranger tried to calm her down on the other line. 

Everything was a blur after that, Lena doesn't remember much other than staying with Lilith, staying glued to her side and the older woman never leaving her alone for more than ten minutes at a time, for about a week before her father showed up. 

She remembers them fighting, remembers the men in suits she would later recognize as her father's lawyers, remembers crying as Lilith clung to her, whispering reassurances to her even as tears spilled down her face and soaked into Lena's favorite yellow shirt. She remembers being put on a plane, a bald man she would soon come to know as her father telling her they were going somewhere called the United States. She remembers the feeling of his large hands laid stiffly on her shoulders as he led her into the living room of a mansion four times the size of her old home. She remembers him introducing her to her new mother, the woman's gaze so cold it made Lena shiver (her icy blue eyes nothing like her mother's warm green ones) and to her new brother, who had curly brown hair and a kind smile as he taught her how to play chess with him.

She's four years old when Lionel informs her of her new legal name, no longer Lena Lilith O'Neill but instead Lena Lillian Luthor. The change of her middle name a last ditch effort to get Lillian to claim Lena as something more than just the physical embodiment of Lionel's betrayal. 

It doesn't work, Lillian continues to refer to her as nothing more than her husband's mistake and Lena cries into her pillow every night for a year over the loss of her name, the last thing she had connecting her to her mother and Lilith; all of her old clothes and belongings thrown out and replaced by material things that cost more than most people's houses. 

The only thing she has left of her mother is the necklace that Lilith gave her before she left, a simple silver chain that had a pendant engraved with a rose on the end. The same one her mother had worn since the day she became pregnant with her, a present from Lilith she presumed. That necklace and her emerald green eyes that never changed colour, even as her body filled out and her features grew sharp, were the only things she had left of her mother in this strange new world.

Lena's fifteen years old when Lionel Luthor, her father, dies.

He has a heart attack, the doctors tell her. He's had those before, but this one was the last his body could handle, they tell her. She wasn't there to see it, not like she was there to witness her mother's. But she was in the house when it happens, was there to hear Lillian's blood curling scream as he collapses, was there to dial 911 and feel the stinging pain of a slap, just hard enough to leave a lingering brown bruise, against her arm when she kneels down and attempts to soothe her mother with a hand on her back. 

She's fifteen when she stands in a scratchy black dress, one more expensive then every other woman in attendance's (her mother's aside) put together. She's standing in front of her father's lowering casket, soil beneath her fingernails from throwing the dirt over the expensive wood, listening as her mother wails in her brother's arms besides her. She's fifteen when the world once again, falls deafly silent around her as she tries to remember the last thing her father said to her.

She can't remember. She wracks her brain the entire day, her eyes dead set in front of her, but she can't remember.

What she does remember is arriving home from the funeral, she remembers the feeling of the once warm mansion growing ice cold around her as the only love and warmth that Lena had left from her parental figures dropped away and was instead replaced with hatred. Hatred, so cold that Lena could feel goosebumps rise on her skin everytime that her mother's eyes landed on her. Hatred that seeped into her bones and curled around her heart, leaving her speechless once more. Speechless when her mother blamed her for her late father's demise, screamed at her for breathing, and slapped her across the face for merely existing when he didn't. 

It came as almost a relief when the next morning Lena walked down the grand staircase to be met by the cold, unflinching face of her mother, and the much more guilty one of her brother cowering behind her. It was almost a relief when Lillian told her she found a boarding school for her, back in Ireland where she could learn to be a proper young woman like Lionel would've wanted. Almost.

They both know it's a lie, they both know that if Lionel had a say in it Lena would never leave the United States again, would instead go to the most grand school money could afford while still staying close to home so she could later take over his legacy at LuthorCorp like he had always wanted her to. They both knew it, but neither of them said a word about it. Instead, Lena just nodded her head, found most of her belongings already packed in the living room and left an hour later with a regretful hug from Lex and a fake smile from Lillian. 

Lena is twenty years old the next time that she sees her mother.

She's already well into her third year of college when her mother insists that she come home for Christmas break to spend time with her family. 

It's surreal for Lena to be back home in the Luthor mansion, five years after her father's ill timed death. The house is just as cold as the morning she left it, and Lena's already counting the seconds until she can leave it.

But Lillian hugs her (albeit stiffly, like she's a robot that just got programmed to do so and hasn't found the right code to make it realistic yet) when she sees her, tells her she misses her when they both know that that isn't true (Lena had spent the entirety of her first year at boarding school begging Lillian every chance she got to allow her to come home, the woman had refused on numerous occasions before snapping and yelling at her over the phone on the last day before summer break begun, and that's the last time that they talked for four years.) Lena plays her part, fakes a smile and tells her she missed her too. 

Her mother's face falls after hearing her daughters voice for the first time in so many years, her own voice turning frigid again as she tells Lena they'd get her into speech therapy as soon as humanly possible in order to rid her of that "hideous" accent that she had picked up after years in Ireland. Lena just gives her a tight lipped smile, biting her tongue so hard it bleeds, before going over to give her big brother a hug. 

Lex, unlike their mother, had never allowed a week to go by without giving Lena a call. He gave her comfort when she cried, gave her love when she was lonely, and always made sure she knew that he was there for her. Even if they had an ocean dividing them through most of those years. 

Lex was her best friend, even when he was arrogant and insensitive to her dreams of becoming a biomedical engineer like their father had been for a large portion of his life. He was the only family she had left, the only person left in the world that loved her, and he mattered to her more than anything else on the planet.

Or at least, that's what she had thought anyways.

Lena is twenty-three years old when her brother takes thousands of innocent life's, men, women, and children, in an attempt to bring down Superman.

Lena had been in Metropolis with him, working part time in the labs at LuthorCorp under Lex while trying to find a cure for cancer with her boyfriend Jack in their garage at every spare moment that she had. 

She knew of the vendetta that Lex had with the man of steel, everybody that talked to Lex for more than five minutes knew of his grudge against him and the rest of the alien race. She listened for hours on end, on countless occasions as he talked about the Kryptonian as though he was the devil himself. She knew of Lex's hatred for Superman, of course she had, but she had never in a million years thought that Lex was capable of the mass murder of hundreds upon thousands of people that fell victim to the nuclear bombing of a city that Lex had conducted in an attempt to kill Superman once and for all. 

Lex admitted it all to Lena, who had had a tape recorder hidden under her dress, property of the FBI. He admitted to her with a sickening sense of madness and pride as he told her all about his plan to draw Superman in by holding an innocent child hostage before releasing a nuclear bomb of kryptonite on the city, telling her that the people that died in the process were just collateral damage in a much more important battle, like soldiers in a war.

He told her it all with a smile on his face, believing that Superman was dead (nobody knew it at the time but he was really just in hiding, healing from the level of kryptonite exposure he had been hit with,) and Lena didn't even feel bad when the FBI came running into the penthouse, throwing their bodies through windows and knocking down the door with guns as large as a grown man in their hands, screaming at him to get on the floor. 

He had looked at her as if she had just been the one to murder thousands of innocence as they handcuffed him. He looked at her like she was a monster, all throughout his trial where Lena was the key witness, where it only took the jury all of ten minutes to find him guilty. He looked at her as if she had stabbed him in the back as they carried him away to his life sentence in a high security prison, and maybe she had. 

Her mother looked at her much the same, and the slap she received this time after she stepped out of the court room was almost reminisce to Lena, this one hard enough (with the help of a few jagged rings) that it left a bloodied scratch and a dark bruise in the shape of a palm against her cheek for the rest of the week. Her mother told her that she was an abomination, a curse to the Luthor name, told her she had never loved her (like Lena hadn't already known that) before stomping off with a look of disgust on her tear stained face, and that was the last she'd see of her mother for a long while.

Lena was twenty-four years old when her life changed forever. 

She had just moved to National City, leaving behind her life, her home in Metropolis that was no longer much of home but instead a constant reminder of the family she once had, the family that she had betrayed and lost. Leaving behind her boyfriend Jack, quite literally the only person left in the entire world that loved Lena. He begged her not to, told her he loved her, accused her of choosing the Luthor name over him when that didn't work. 

She didn't love him anymore, didn't know if she ever truly had. 

All she could see when she looked at him was the guilt and pity in his expression whenever his eyes were on her, all she could feel was the suffocation of his love, which felt like it was from a past life– the life where she actually had a family, the one where she was actually a person that somebody could love.

He didn't offer to come with her and she didn't ask him to. That was the last she saw of him. 

She was twenty-four and the youngest, richest (and most hated,) CEO in all of the United States. She took over LuthorCorp the week after her twenty fourth birthday, with plans already laid out to change the name to L-Corp and moved into an extravagant Victorian mansion that had been built in the late eighteenth century on the outskirts of National City. It was inconvenient and would take more than a half hour to get to work everyday, it was also possibly haunted as nobody had even stepped foot in it (with the exception of the home renovators she had hired to clean it up and make it presentable, as well as the movers that had moved all of her brand new furniture in) in decades. The closest neighbour lived nearly a mile out and the house came with miles upon miles of untouched green fields that turned into forest the farther you walked, their was a rickety old fence around the premises of her backyard that went on for a few hundred acres before closing just short of where the forest started growing untamabley a few more acres out, though that land, uninhabited by anything but wild animals, also belonged to her.

She had bought it the second she had laid eyes on it. Her mother would've absolutely despised it, she absolutely loved it.

She was twenty-four, all alone with not a soul to talk to, touch-starved and possibly senile, in an old Victorian house on top of a small abandoned hill that every neighbor within driving radius was scared to even look at. Everybody living on earth hated her, seemingly forgetting that she was the one who turned her brother in and convicted him to what would ultimately be his death, and instead seeing her as nothing more than another evil Luthor who's brother killed thousands in cold blood. Her family hated her, her co-workers hated her, the world hated her, and quite frankly, she hated herself too. 

She hated herself for just watching as her mother died besides her, she hated herself for not fighting to stay with Lilith, she hated herself for not being able to save her father, she hated herself for not being able to save those thousands of lives lost, she hated herself for betraying her family and for breaking Jack's heart. She hated herself for breathing, she hated herself for existing when everybody around her either died or left. She was cursed, just like her mother had said. 

So now Lena sat, sulking in the top floor of her Victorian house, sprawled out on an uncomfortable couch that costed a fortune and sipping on her fifth glass of wine as she stared out at the large, stainless windows that reached from the high ceilings all the way down to the wooden floors, taking up an entire long wall at the furthest end of the house that looked out on the thousands of acres she had boughten rather impulsively a week ago. It was beautiful, the sun setting just past the trees and leaving nothing but the dim glow of orange and crimson, quickly being overlapped by a sky of dark blue splattered with specks of white. The moon was full tonight, and with the help of the blaring stars it illuminated all the tall trees a mile out perfectly. Lena had been staring mindlessly at the sunset for over an hour now, her mind fuzzy from alcohol and her eyes drooping with exhaustion.

And that's why, when a meteorite, small in comparison to the vast of the quickly darkening sky but made up for by the colourful flames that brightened the sky around it as it trailed behind the meteorite, caught in the corner of Lena's vision, the young woman couldn't help but do a triple take and promptly fall from her couch. At first, she blamed it on the alcohol, muttering about how she knew that fifth glass was a bad idea. But then, when she catches her bearings and looks up again, the meteorite doesn't disperse in the air, it doesn't disappear into the darkness like a drunken vision would when examined this heavily. No, it stayed bright and loud as it zoomed down through the sky and came so close in Lena's vision that she feared it was gonna crash right into her brand new house and kill her as though she were nothing but an ant. She quickly got off the hardwood floor, stumbling barefoot across the ground as her hands find purchase on the large windows that were cold to the touch, even as they were in the early weeks of spring and the city quickly warmed up as the days went by. 

Lena noticed then, as the meteorite neared the earth so fast that it was almost hard to keep in your eyes, that the meteorite wasn't actually a meteorite at all. It looked like a spaceship, metal and windows if Lena squinted, that were being charred by the multi-colored flames blazing against it. And whatever was in the ship, she realized rather quickly, clearly wasn't going to survive. If the fire burning through their ship didn't kill them, or the air compression suffocating them, then the crash landing only a few hundred acres out was surely their demise. 

But that's what truly caught Lena's attention, the ship landed, still in an abundance of flames, within running distance of her house, on her property. It only took her a few moments, blinking in shock at the wreck a few acres away, before she shot into action. Her body was quicker then her mind, which was still weighted heavily by the affects of the alcohol she had consumed. She stumbled down the spiral staircase behind the couch, nearly tripping down the stairs as she ran down the three floors before landing on the main level. She ran to the kitchen that had a fire extinguisher, not for this very reason but for the instance of something at least similar occuring in her bewildered life. She grabbed it and a flashlight out of one of the many drawers (she hadn't memorized where everything went yet so there was definitely some fumbling,) before she was out the back door, not even caring to close it as she switched on the flashlight and started into a sprint. 

It took her a while, she wasn't even sure how long but long enough that the flames started to dissipate once she had arrived, the soaking wet grass beneath her feet saving her newly boughten land from catching fire. Even getting close to the wreckage, Lena could feel the blistering heat radiating through the air and her eyes turned blurry as the abundance of smoke blinded her path. But she didn't let it deter her, much to curious and drunk to give a shit about the consequences of being this close to a flaming ship that just fell God knows how high from the sky. She used her fire extinguisher, until there was absolutely nothing left in the large red can, to extinguish the rest of the already dampening flames. It worked, and soon Lena was standing a bit to close to the wreckage, flashlight in hand and her body cautious not to touch the steaming metal (that she was now positive was not, in fact metal, though she couldn't tell what it was exactly) that would no doubt melt her skin off if touched. 

She was in the middle of examining an engraved text on the side of the spaceship, her eyes squinted as she tried to make out the deeply unfamiliar language that didn't look much like any language at all the more she examined it, when she suddenly heard a bang from inside of the container. She jumped back as though she was burnt, getting only a handful of feet away (scared it would explode into flames at any moment) before the top of the darkened glass ship was thrown off with an impressive strength, landing a dozen or so yards away from the wreckage (which Lena didn't understand how THAT was physically possible) and a body emerged from the ship, stumbling out of what was left of the spaceship before collapsing on the ground a few feet away from Lena's bare feet, covered in wet grass and mud. 

Lena shined the light on the figure hazardously, careful not to startle the person who had their face pushed into the wet grass. She didn't understand how it was possible, but they were merely untouched (from what she could see) by the wreckage that covered the ground around them. Her skin, left exposed in a small dress that went down to her upper thighs and wrapped tight enough to snap around her impressively sculpted biceps, didn't even have a single scratch on it. Lena couldn't believe her eyes, and now she was 100% positive that she was hallucinating.

"Hello?" Lena chanced a word, her voice broken and cautious as she stared at the now unmoving figure laying in front of her feet, she'd think they were dead if it weren't for the subtle rise and fall of their chest. But that was all the figure needed to be mobile again it seemed, her head snapping up at an impossible speed that had Lena stumbling back a few steps as piercing blue eyes found her own green ones, wide-eyed with a look of amazement.

They just stayed like that for a few unblinking minutes, Lena cautious and fearful from a few feet away, and the woman just staring with an expression that Lena couldn't quite decipher written across her face as she watched Lena's every movement with rapt attention. Finally, when it was clear that the girl wasn't going to move towards her unless Lena herself did first, the girl mustered up as much courage as she could and took a few steps forward. Coming to an abrupt stop and freezing in place when the girl rose to her feet in the blink of an eye, much to fast to be anything human. To her credit at least, the girl looked just as startled by her own speed as Lena did, looking down at her body and flexing her hands in front of her face with a confused look. 

Lena recovered as quickly as could be expected, ignoring the way the girls wide eyes stared down at her own body like she hadn't ever seen it before, "Are you okay?" She tried again. 

The girls ocean eyes snapped up to meet her own again, a look of even deeper confusion sketching across her features, which Lena hadn't previously thought was possible. She titled her head to the right, her flawless blonde hair (seriously, how was it not at least tangled?) falling down her shoulder as she eyed Lena from top to bottom, seemingly searching for something. When she was satisfied with her findings, she smiled slightly, her lips upturning in one corner before she took cautiously slow steps, at a much more controlled and human pace this time, towards Lena, who tried her hardest not to flinch back when the blonde stopped about a foot short of her, just close enough that any regular human would call it invading of her personal space. 

"Kēiir ënx liëkj ēgst lūkzrs." The girl says, confidently and clearly with a nod of her head down, almost like she was subtlety bowing to Lena. The words she spoke seemed unnatural and odd, spoken quick and effortlessly, but almost inhuman. Lena was smart, so smart that she spoke five languages fluently and could easily recognize a dozen more, but this, whatever that was that this girl had just spoken to her, was absolutely nothing like any language Lena had ever heard and she was almost positive that was because it wasn't of this earth. It didn't take a genius to figure that out, atleast. 

"D-do you, um, do you speak English?" Lena asked, her words slow and unsteady, her hands making some odd motions that she herself didn't even fully understand as she tried to communicate with the girl who was looking at her like she was from another earth. But she supposed, she probably was. 

The girl just blinked blankly in response for a few moments before repeating herself, "Kēiir ënx liëkj ēgst lūkzrs." She said with a self assured nod of her head before attempting to mimic the hand motions that Lena had just done with her own, "Zhüzzop?" She questioned.

"I'll take that as a no." Lena sighed quietly, talking more to herself than to the strange alien standing a little to closely to her. She took a moment to examine the girl, using her flashlight to guide a path up and down her body as she looked her over for any sign of injury. It was hard to tell from the black char smeared across certain parts of her legs and arms where she must've been brushed by fire, or at least where she made contact with the charred remains of her spaceship. There could easily be bruising or scratches under the layers of black char and mud from her stumble to the ground on her skin, there was no way, alien or not, that someone could walk away from falling to earth without at least a bruise to show for it. 

The girl, who Lena passingly noticed looked around her age, was still mumbling incoherently to Lena as if the girl could understand her, using her own hand signals to try to explain something to the raven haired beauty. But she couldn't make much of it, just watching with furrowed brows as the girl pointed towards the sky on numerous occasions, using her hands to mimic an explosion of some sort, a sound effect falling from her lips for good measure before she mimicked what Lena would guess was the spaceship falling through the sky, but it was hard to tell with the wavering and spinning of her hands, her motions sometimes to fast for Lena's eyes to catch. 

Lena was lost, to say the least, but the blonde gave Lena a desperate look that practically begged her to understand, repeating the motions over and over with her hands as she accompanied them with more unintelligible, frantic words, ending the motions with her hands pointing towards the sky, back to her space ship, before pointing in the general direction of Lena's house. Lena just nodded slowly, her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to convey some level of understanding to the increasingly frantic woman. 

"Kal-El Zor-El!" The woman all but yelled at her when all Lena did was bob her head up and down, taking a step closer and succeeding in getting close enough to Lena that the girls breath hitched in her throat, a surge of fear running through her as the taller girl towered over her, repeating those two words over and over like they were meant to mean something to her.

"Okay, okay, calm down. I'll help you! I promise I'll help you, okay? You just have to calm down." Lena tried interrupting the girl who sounded like she was ten seconds away from sending herself spiralling into a panic attack, raising her voice as well as her hands, putting them up in the same motion one would when approaching a wild animal. She tried to make her voice sound as soothing as possible, letting her usually cold and impartial tone that scared greater men into submission, take on a calming and approachable demeanor. 

It seemed to work well enough because the girl stopped repeating those words, falling silent as she observed Lena with a worried look in her eyes. The raven haired girl kept repeating a (hopefully) soothing mantra of "You're okays." and "I'll help you." until the young alien no longer looked like she was seconds away from running away. 

Lena then carefully and cautiously, mindful of the chance that this may just end in her hand being broken by an alarmed alien, placed her hand on top of the girls bare arm in a soothing manner. The blonde tensed slightly under the touch, looking down at the girls pale hand before switching her eyes back up to look into Lena's emerald ones. The young heiress smiled reassuringly at the blonde when their eyes met cautiously, or atleast as reassuring as she could manage to muster up at the moment. Either way, it seemed to do the trick as the tension melted from the young aliens body and she smiled hesitantly in return. 

Lena couldn't help but think she had a really beautiful smile. 

_Not the time Lena_ she thought to herself before shaking her head and tilting it carefully towards her house, using her free hand to motion towards the structure. 

"Come with me, darling. We'll get you cleaned up and I can make sure you aren't to seriously injured." Lena told the girl in the same soothing tone, knowing the girl couldn't understand what she was saying but saying it anyway, more out of reflex than anything else. When the blonde just titled her head in question, Lena cautiously slid her hand down the girls sculpted arm before landing on her wrist which she wrapped securely in her fingers before slowly tugging the girl with her back towards the house. The blonde hesitated momentarily, looking back towards her ship before staring at Lena with a searching gaze, what she was searching for Lena wasn't sure but she just smiled hesitantly again before tilting her head back towards the house once more. The blonde nodded slowly before starting to trudge after her.

They fell in tow with one another, Lena's grip still tight around the blondes wrist, scared that the other girl might change her mind and run off before Lena could get a much needed explanation on the whole night. It wasn't tight enough to be restricting, but even so, from the way that the other girl threw the top of the spaceship off and almost an entire acre away, Lena was pretty sure that the other girl could easily overpower her if she really wished to do so. So she wasn't to worried about coming off as aggressive with her hold on the other woman. 

They walked in silence for a while, the young aliens gaze searching every inch of their surroundings with wonder, looking around at the world like everything was new and amazing. Her expression was close to what Lena thought a child's would look like if they were taken to the zoo for the first time in their life's, observant and rapt with attentive amazement as they looked at all the new creatures around them. The blonde alien looked at the trees in particular like they were a foreign, but very beautiful, object. 

Lena couldn't help but fill the silence when she saw the blondes eyes stray on the miles of trees surrounding them, 

"You know, there is more than 60,000 species of trees on this earth?" Lena asked, looking over to the blonde questioningly, catching the girls curious ocean blue eyes that stared at her in wonder before realizing that the other girl couldn't answer or understand what she had just said. She continued on anyways. 

"Out of all 60,000 species of trees, they only take up about 30 percent of the land on this Earth. Which you can round up to about 50 percent if you account for all the other plant productivity. 71 percent of the Earth is covered in water, 95 percent of which has been unexplored by humans, and out of the other 29 percent, 50 percent of it is covered in trees and 20 percent in mountains. Surprisingly though, out of the 29 percent of land, only 5 percent of it is unaffected and uninhabited by the human race." Lena couldn't seem to stop talking, she knew she was just spewing out worthless facts by now, none of which the alien could actually understand, but she was nervous, and she talked a lot when she was nervous. 

On the plus side, it didn't seem like the blonde minded her blabbering much. If Lena didn't know any better, she'd even say that the blue eyed alien looked invested in her words. She watched Lena closely with wide eyes, forgoing the exploration of her surroundings and instead closely observing her every movement in rapt attention.

She looked at her like she could see right through her, and it only proved in making Lena even more nervous then before. So she continued to talk, about nothing of importance, mostly just random facts that she had memorized from to many hours spent staring mind numbingly at college text books. She talked until they reached her house, the back door still swung wide open and creaking in the slow winds.

Lena led her up to the third floor of the house, the spiral staircase creaking under their combined weight before Lena tugged the aimless girl with her into the heiress's new bedroom; one of the largest rooms in the house, it took up nearly the entirety of the third floor with an exception of a grand bathroom (that Lena had them install a new age shower into, right next to the claw foot tub, because she had always hated taking baths but didn't have the heart to get rid of the more than hundred year old tub,) and a guest bedroom, large but not as large as her own, on the other side of the large hallway from her.

Her bedroom was mostly vacant, nothing particularly special about the furniture that littered the space; there was a large four poster bed, adorned with royal gold pillars and a tall, matching headboard. It was big enough to fit five people with silk blue sheets and a mountain of silky white pillows. There were two bedside tables, one on each side of the bed with golden, antique lamps on each.

On the left wall, across the room from the bed sat an unnecessarily large flat screen TV mounted on the wall, an antique coffee table and two floral printed L shaped couches sat in front of it. On either sides of the TV were two very large and grand bookshelves that held hundreds of Lena's favorite books, which she admittedly used a lot more than the TV. And on the farthest wall from the door, directly in front of them were two tall, glass French doors that were lined and engraved with gold markings– these led to an extravagant stone balcony which looked out on the still lake about an ancer or so out, and the forest that surrounded it. Next to the French doors was a large cherry wood desk with a matching chair, sat directly under large, ceiling high windows.

The walls had old and peeling sky blue wallpaper adorned with small roses and the floors were dark polished wooden planks. Above it all, on the extravagantly high ceilings, was an expensive glass chandelier (one of many that this house had.)

Lena waltzed right in, letting go of Kara's wrist absentmindedly when the girl stopped moving in the middle of the room and instead trudging along to the door, on right of the bed that led to the luxurious bathroom. Under the sink she found a large first aid kit, which she grabbed before coming back into the room. 

The young alien hadn't moved from her spot in the middle of the room, her eyes locked on the chandelier directly above her head. She looked on in amazement, doing small, slow circles that were gradually getting faster as her eyes stayed transfixed on the way the glass glowed and gleamed with light fixture. Lena couldn't help but laugh at the sight,

"You're going to get dizzy." She remarked, momentarily forgetting that the alien couldn't understand her.

But her voice alone was enough to snap the alien out of her daze, her head snapping back over to Lena with her head tilted before she tipped over to her right, staggering and unbalanced before her body collided with the wall, which shook the entire room unhappily. Lena froze, looked up at the shaking chandelier to make sure that they weren't about to be killed by it's ill timed downfall, before looking over to a bashful looking alien who was giving her a small, apologetic smile as she caught her balance and bounced off the wall— which now had a small indent and various cracks against the structure.

The blonde herself looked confused, pushing off the wall and shaking her head back and forth like it'd shake away the vertigo that had overcome her,

"D-dizzy?" The alien repeated in a thick, inhuman accent as she tried to wrap her tongue around the word which Lena had spoken. The emerald eyes strayed on her, a look of amazement crossing over her features as she nodded her head vigorously in confirmation,

"Dizzy." She repeated back, doing a twirling gesture with her finger that was meant to demonstrate the young woman's spinning, "it'll happen if you move in circles for to long or to fast." She clarified.

"Dizzy." The alien repeated back with an air of finality to her strongly accented words, the word not quite right on her tongue but close enough for Lena to be satisfied with the girls already quick learning. The blonde nodded her head before moving closer towards the raven haired beauty.

Lena's eyebrows furrowed then, a look of deep confusion on her face as she went over to examine the wall which looked like something hard and indestructible, like concrete or steel had collided with it instead of a dainty girl. 

"Must be a weak wall." She muttered to herself unsurely before looking back at the guilt ridden alien who was giving her a lopsided smile. She smiled in return, not knowing any other way to communicate that it was okay before grabbing the blondes wrist once more and moving her over to the bed, sitting her down on the side of it before running back to the bathroom to wet a towel.

She came back, kneeling in front of the girl in her black silk nightie with a wet towel in one hand and the girls leg held carefully in the other. The girl looked down at her questioningly, a few unintelligible words falling past her lips in confusion that Lena could only answer with a small apologetic smile,

"This might hurt." She warned apologetically before going over the mud and char covered limb with the wet towel, looking for any sign of burns or bruises under the layers of filth. The alien jumped at the cool touch of water, a few more words falling from her lips in confusion before seeming to accept her faith when Lena didn't stop and she caught wind of what was occuring– she was being cleaned. 

Once Lena had scrubbed off all the dirt and char adorning the girls legs she paused, confused by the lack of lacerations on the other girls seemingly flawless skin. She muttered to herself in confusion before moving on to scrub at the blondes arms instead, this time the alien let her do so without a word of protest, just watching as she the girl worked.

When Lena was done she sat back on the heels of her feet, her hands sat in her lap and her eyes tracing over the girls body in bewilderment, 

"That's not possible." She muttered to herself, running her hand gently down the length of the girls unpenetrated skin with furrowed brows before looking back up into the blank blue eyes staring down at her,

"You're not possible." She told the girl in a quiet, astonished voice, who just blinked down at her a few times in return before opening her mouth with a proud smile gracing her features,

"Dizzy." She said again, much more accurate to the actual pronunciation this time around with a self assured nod of her head. Lena gave her a confused smile in return, which seemed to please the alien,

"Yeah, you're right. Dizzy." She muttered absently.


	2. II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You're Kara?" She asked, slightly put off by the seemingly ordinary human name but letting it go in favor of the pride and accomplishment she was feeling course through her body. 
> 
> This was incredible progress.
> 
> The blonde nodded her head vigorously and smiled toothily back at Lena before tapping on Lena's chest "I'm Lena." She said before withdrawing her hand and tapping on her own chest, "I'm Kara."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, I did change the title of this story to a Beatles song (and yes, I'm one of those teenagers that listen to the Beatles religiously) and yes, I did write most of this while I was drunk last night (don't underage drink, kids.) but I'm posting twice in one week so what about it?

Lena sighs as she gets up from her kneeling position on the hardwood floors, her eyes instinctively running over her surroundings until they landed on the alarm clock that she had propped up on the left bedside table. In vibrant, neon blue lettering the small screen displays the bold numbers 1:52 AM, meaning that in approximately four hours or so Lena would have to be awake and aware for another day in the office full of people that seemingly hated her. 

She knew reasonably that she should just take the day off to figure out her newly founded crisis that is the spaceship sized crater in her brand new backyard and the foreign blonde alien watching her attentively from her bed. But she couldn't do that, she couldn't do that because it was only her second week as CEO and her board of already highly irratible rich and privelaged white males would have it out for her head and position if they knew that she took a day off this early into the game. They were already looking for reasons that she was unfit for her position, whether because she was a female or because they were sick and tired of being told what to do by yet another Luthor– it didn't matter. She knew for a fact that they were just waiting for one little slip up from her that they could use to brand her unfit and make her turn over her position for a new CEO of their choosing. 

No, she couldn't miss a day of work but she also had absolutely no idea how she was going to leave this alien unsupervised in a whole new world where she didn't even speak the language. 

It was pretty obvious that the young blonde was on a mission to do something, go somewhere, or find someone from the way she snapped at Lena merely minutes after their meeting. She had a reason for being here, something she had to do, and Lena was pretty sure that if she left the alien alone in this house then she wouldn't be here when she got back. And people can accuse her of being an alien hater all they wanted to, but it just simply wasn't true. Lena didn't hate aliens, she could never hate someone if they didn't earn it first and no alien had ever wronged her (unlike almost every human that Lena had known.) So no, she didn't hate aliens, but the United States did. Or at least, a large portion of the population did anyways. And if the blonde alien were to wonder off, not knowing a lick of English and unknowing of the way things worked on this planet, then she'd only get so far before someone caught on to her being not of this planet. And that's not something you want to be known for. Especially after what Lex did– the spotlight that he shined on the alien race painted them all in red and the people that had previously been scared to come out about their hatred for aliens were no longer so scared because they saw that others did as well.

It was like a riot effect– if everybody else was doing it then surely it didn't matter if you were to do it as well.

So she couldn't leave her alone, and she couldn't even communicate with her. All these factors were stacking up to make for one very heavy headache that she couldn't shake.

So for now, she pushed aside her numerous amount of future problems and decided to focus on the ones she could actually deal with at the current moment instead— the alien needed a shower and Lena needed some sleep, especially considering she'd only gotten about 5 hours of it in the past 48 hours. Lena also needed to stop referring to the alien as the alien, but she had no idea how to get a name out of the blonde. Or even how to tell for sure that what she was saying was a name in the first place.

She had to try though, because she couldn't call her "the alien" forever, especially if someone were to stumble upon the said alien, God forbid. So Lena quickly made work of putting away the first aid kit she hadn't even needed to use and the now ruined white towel before coming to stand directly in front of the alien, who hadn't moved from her spot on the bed and was instead intently watching as her hands ran over the smooth silk material that covered Lena's bed, a look of awe on her face as she petted the bedding. 

"E-excuse me." Lena cleared her throat before she said this hesitantly, not knowing any other way to get the aliens attention without risking startling the girl and having her run off. It worked perfectly however, and soon the aliens ocean blue eyes were once again laid upon her with just as much rapt attention as she had been giving the silk sheets, which she had yet to stop petting. 

"What's your name?" Lena asked bluntly before scrunching up her eyes and shaking her head at herself mere milliseconds after the words left her mouth, knowing full well that the alien had no idea what she was asking her and hence could not give her a coherent answer. She blinked her eyes back open to be met with the sight of the blonde alien, her head tilted to the side in silent question and looking more like a golden retriever puppy than anything else.

Lena sighed heavily, shaking out her hands at her side before trying again, 

"My name–" she stopped and used her hands this time, placing one pale hand on the lace covering her chest and tapping it a few times for empathise before continuing, "is _Lena_." She finished, looking at the alien for a reaction.

She didn't get much of one though, because the blue eyed girl was still staring at her with a blank look in her eyes, just blinking a few times at Lena before resuming her petting of the silk sheets. Lena sighed again, heavier this time before plopping down on the king sized mattress besides the alien, grabbing her hands gently to stop them from their repetitive movements and draw the woman's attention back to her. It worked, the blue eyes staring across at her with something heavy in them as she gently and slowly curled her hands around Lena's in return, her gaze flickering between their interlocked hands before going back up to Lena's emerald green eyes. If Lena didn't know any better, she'd think that was amazement or adoration in the aliens eyes. 

She released the aliens hands from her own, watching them drop back down to the baby blue sheets unceremoniously. The aliens ocean blue eyes fell down to look at her hands as well, now laying motionless against the sheets. Her eyes flickered back up and she frowned at the heiress blankly for a few seconds before reaching out and attempting to grab her hands again.

"No, bad alien." Lena shook her head, pulling her hands back before the other girl could get a hold of them and watching the blondes expression deepen further in displeasure. She didn't mean to use that phrasing, it made the alien sound more like a newborn puppy than an actual person but she had no other way of refering to the girl and it didn't really matter what she refered to her as anyways, it wasn't like the blonde could understand her anyways. She ignored the frown sketched into the aliens features and instead attempted her experiment again,

"My name–" she paused, pointing to herself animatedly and tapping on her chest again for empathise, watching the blue eyes follow her movements with a small frown, "is LENA." She empathised the words loudly, making sure that that was the part that the alien understood. 

"L-lena?" The alien asked, pointing to herself and mocking the movements that Lena had just displayed. Lena sighed and shook her head slightly, grabbing a hold of the blondes hands and using them to point to herself instead, 

"No darling, I'm Lena." She empathised her point by leading the aliens pointer finger over to her chest and tapping on it before repeating her name with a nod of her head. The alien watched with rapt attention, her eyes following her hand as it gently tapped against Lena's lace and silk covered chest with her finger. She seemed transfixed by that movement and when Lena let go of her hand she didn't let it drop like she had before, instead placing her entire hand on Lena's exposed upper chest and soothing her fingers down the skin until she was met with the texture of lace sewed seamlessly into silk, petting Lena's chest gently, just like she had done with the sheets.

Lena immediately recognized her own mistakes and felt all the blood in her body come rushing up to her cheeks, her ears burning as she stuttered out a laugh and grabbed a hold of the aliens wrist before forcefully tugging it away from her chest, "no, no bad alien." She shook her head again. 

The alien frowned again before pushing her hand forward, overpowering Lena's strength with her own so easily that it felt unnatural and unsettling before gently tapping her chest and repeating Lena's earlier words, "I'm Lena?" she repeated in question.

Lena furrowed her eyebrows, trying to think of a way to correct her misuse of the possessive pronouns while also praising her for the pronunciation and understanding of her name. But she quickly gave that idea up when she knew the meaning would get lost in translation and just nodded her head instead, a beaming smile on her face as she nodded her head and repeated it back while pointing to herself, "I'm Lena." 

The alien repeated it back in a heavy accent a few times, trying her best to mimick Lena's words as she smiled brightly back at the grinning human, all blaring white teeth and perfect pink lips. Lena absently thought of Superman, of his broad shoulders, bulging muscles, dazzling smile and perfectly slicked back black hair, and wondered if all aliens were this fucking beautiful and humans were the only ones in the galaxy cursed with imperfections, or if it was just these two in particular. 

"Good alien." Lena praised this time with a nod of her head, which seemed to make the blonde only smile wider in understanding.

"Now, what's YOUR name?" Lena questioned, taking a hold of the hand still tapping on her chest and using it to point back at the blonde with a question in her emerald eyes. 

The blondes eyebrows furrowed before she smiled once more and nodded her head, "I'm Lena." She said with a self assured nod and a tap on her own chest, seemingly pleased with her answer. Lena sighed and shook her head,

"No darling, I'M Lena. What's YOUR name?" Lena empathised her words with first pointing to herself before pointing over to the alien and tapping her pointer and middle finger on the unfamiliar white material covering the other girls chest modestly.

Realization seemed to dawn on the alien and her confused expression quickly melted into a beaming smile as she clapped her hands and bounced lightly on the bed (which creaked rather unhappily at the action,) before pointing to herself in understanding, "I'm Kara!" She said, accent even thicker as she said the words before looking over to Lena to see if she got her meaning correctly. 

Lena gave her her biggest smile yet, all her gleaming white teeth showing as she upturned her head before nodding vigorously and tapped on the aliens chest once more,

"You're Kara?" She asked, slightly confused by the seemingly ordinary human name but letting it go in favor of the pride and accomplishment she was feeling course through her body. This was incredible progress. 

The blonde nodded her head vigorously and smiled toothily back at Lena before tapping on Lena's chest "I'm Lena." She said before withdrawing her hand and tapping on her own chest, "I'm Kara." 

"Good! Good Kara." Lena laughed with a clap of her hands, her voice enthusiastic as she nodded her head in understanding, which only proved to make the alien, Kara, she corrected herself internally, smile wider with a pleased nod of her head.

This was good, this was progress, Lena thought. They'd only known each other for less than an hour and they already knew each other's names– which most people would actually consider as anything but progress, but this was special conditions and for the entire world of differences separating the two girls, it was considerable progress. Kara proved to be a quick learner, already knowing three new English words that she could say with only a hint of her heavy accent clouding her pronunciation of the words. And, considering Kara's original demeanor that consisted of yelling and frantic panic, the smile that was adorning her features now was also considerable progress for a night's work. 

This time, when Kara reached out at an almost inhuman speed and grabbed a hold of Lena's hands with maybe just a tad too much strength to be considered normal, Lena didn't pull away and instead just smiled at the young blonde as she allowed her to intertwine their fingers with a very pleased smile. Kara's hand were soft, very soft with not a callous or imperfection in sight, which was slightly odd considering the amount of strength she used to hold Lena's hands in her own with, and the noticably defined biceps straining against her white gown whenever she moved, was likely achieved through years of weightlifting, which was usually accompanied by rough, over worked hands. 

But Lena didn't allow her brain to much time to stray on these thoughts, as a glance to the clock told her that she had already lost another half hour of precious sleep through this encounter. Instead, she moved on to tightening Kara's fingers in her own and turning to look at the wide blue eyes which had yet to move away from her. 

The alien was bit of a starer, never seeming to let her gaze stray from Lena for more than a handful of minutes at a time, but Lena tried not to fault her for it as she knew that this was a whole new world for the girl and just about everything around her must be hard to draw her eyes away from since it was all so new and exciting. Lena fell into that new and exciting category, she supposed. 

"Kara," she broke the girl out of her daze, which laid somewhere between Lena's chest and eyes, and made the ocean blue eyes stare back into her own emerald green ones.

"Do you know what a shower is?" She asked the young girl, her head tilting in question. Kara mirrored that action, her eyebrows furrowed and a frown dawning across her face as she tried to decipher the unfamiliar words being spoken to her. Lena shook her head at herself, knowing that the language barrier was going to take some time to get used to before she was able to stop herself from asking stupid questions like that. 

"You have no idea what I'm saying, of course you don't." She muttered to herself, her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to think of an easier way to say this to the blonde. She couldn't talk to her and it seemed that hand gestures only got them so far, so Lena decided to go with what her father had always told her (of course, he was more talking about work and her education other than communicating with an alien, but still it stayed relevant to her current predicament,) it was always better to act then to ask, to show rather then tell.

So Lena tightened her grip on Kara's hand before standing up and pulling her in the direction of the rather large bathroom. On the farthest end of the room was a large shower, big enough to fit atleast four grown adults with marble flooring and tall, clear glass panels surrounding it. Lena tugged the alien closer to the shower, unsure of how to convey the purpose of it but knowing that the char and mud that was starting to dry against Kara's forehead, neck, shoulders and thighs needed to be washed off the blonde before she could convince her into sleeping.

"This is a shower." Lena said lamely, empathising the last word and pointing towards the shower with her free hand, hoping to convey the importance of the invention. Kara stared at it in confusion, her eyes drawing a path all over the large bathroom, trailing first over the marble flooring and the long porcelain vanity that held a rather impressive amount of products before falling onto the mirror that loomed above the sink. She froze then, a look of amazement dawning on her face as she walked closer to it, not letting go of Lena's hand and instead drawing her across the room with her as she examined herself in the mirror, poking at her features and wiping at the dirt and grass stuck against her forehead from when she had buried her face into the ground earlier. 

"Th-that's a mirror." Lena told her, gesturing towards the appliance that seemed to warp Kara's attention. The blonde looked at her through the mirror, her eyes drawing down Lena's figure before snapping over to look at herself again, 

"M-m-mirror." She stuttered out, the aggressive R sound sounding rather unnatural on her tongue, but she muttered it to herself a few more times anyways as she examined it.

"Yeah, very good, Kara." Lena mumbled in reassurance, feeling more and more like a kindergarten teacher or speech therapist the more that Kara learned to talk. She felt awkward praising the other woman, especially after only knowing her for just over an hour, but she didn't know any other way of reassuring the girl on her pronunciation and quick learning.

Kara eventually moved on from the mirror, her hands dragging against the porcelain of the sink before her eyes landed on the toilet besides it. Lena laughed when Kara looked over to her questioningly, walking over and opening up the toilet with a small, awkward smile, "This is a toilet. You use it to umm, use it to discharge your bodily fluids." Lena said awkwardly.

Kara didn't seem to catch any of that, a look of confusion on her face as she tried to process the rather complicated words before she pointed towards it with her free hand, "A toilet?" She asked.

"Yeah yeah, a toilet. Exactly." Lena smiled, proud of Kara for the near perfect pronunciation and for being able to depict her sentence. Kara smiled in return before running her hand over the silver handle, accidentally pushing it down and quite frankly freaking out when she heard the rather loud sound of the water rushing out of the toilet bowl before filling up once more. She jumped and sped out of the room faster than the human eye could cope, nearly tugging Lena's arm out of it's socket as she grabbed the girl rather harshly and just about flew out of the room. Lena gasped at the speed in which she found herself pushed up against the wall closest to where the bathroom door was, Kara's slightly larger body covering her own like a makeshift shield as the blonde hesitantly popped her head back in the bathroom, looking for signs of danger. Her hands were on either side of Lena's head, one still holding and pinning Lena's own to the wall and the other holding the metal handle to the toilet, crumpled like paper in her hand. 

"Kara! Kara, it's okay! It's just a toilet! That's what toilets do!" Lena raised her voice at the girl, not angrily but soothingly, her louder octave necessary for catching the alarmed blondes attention away from the bathroom. She was able to tug her hand out of Kara's hold, who let her go rather reluctantly before both Lena's palms were on the other girls cheeks, guiding her gaze down to meet Lena's own intense one as she soothed her fingers over the rather sharp cheekbones in a (hopefully) comforting manner. 

"It's okay, Kara. It won't hurt you, I promise." She soothed the girl, her thick eyebrows furrowed in concentration and her subtle Irish accent falling into a gentle and quiet tone. She knew the girl couldn't understand what she was saying, but she hoped her actions and voice conveyed the lack of danger that the alien was in.

It seemed to work because soon Kara was all but melting into Lena's body, her own slumping unceremoniously into Lena as her hands slid down the wall and let go of the now ruined toilet handle. Lena ducked her head down before letting go of the blondes cheeks, ignoring the grumble the alien let out before kneeling down to wrap the metal in her own pale fingers. She paused, her knees creaking in protest at the drawn out squat as she examined the crumpled metal. It was ruined, completely crushed under the weight of Kara's hand, looking more like a crushed aluminum can then the handle to a toilet. You could see the imprint of the blondes fingers, grasped so hard that it was nearly snapped under the pressure. And you could see some of the inner workings of the toilet had been pulled out with the handle, pieces of broken metal and crumpled porcelain sticking out at the end of the small rod.

Lena squeezed it in her hand as hard as she could manage, her already pale fist turning white as she strained the object in her hand. But it didn't snap, didn't even creak under her strength even in it's weakened state. She looked up at the alien who was staring down at her with a questioning gaze, her blonde eyebrows drawn together and a crease making itself present in her forehead. Lena mirrored the expression before looking back down at the metal in her palm and rising up to her feet to face Kara.

She handed the metal back to Kara, who took it (gently this time) in her palm before looking back at Lena in silent question. Lena didn't say anything, just pointed to the metal before mimicking a squeezing gesture with her own palm, silently trying to demonstrate what she wanted Kara to do to the already ruined metal. Kara's eyes didn't leave her own as she squeezed her hands into fists like Lena had demonstrated, her blue eyes flickering down to her own fist when the metal crumpled like a piece of cheap paper in her fist, parts of it snapping off and falling to the floor and the other pieces just turning into a tight ball of crushed metal under her strength. She opened her palm back up when Lena took hold of it, prying her fist open gently before grabbing the squished metal once more with an amazed look. 

"Well that explains my wall." She muttered to herself as she twirled the metal in her hand before looking back up at Kara, who looked just as bewildered as she did. Lena shook her head, trying not to let her mind stray on the other womans demonstrations of strength and speed– those were thoughts to dwell on later when she didn't have three hours left to sleep. 

"Come on." She muttered to Kara, grabbing the other girls hand in her own (albeit more cautiously this time, she wasn't looking to shatter her bones,) and tugging her back to the bathroom, ignoring the aliens feet dragging against the marble floors as she glared angrily at the now ruined toilet. Lena had never seen somebody look at an intimate object with such deep hatred and mistrust before, and under different circumstances she might have just laughed at the grudge on the other girls face.

"Okay Kara, this is a shower." She tried again, grabbing a hold of Kara's face with her free hand just long enough to tear the girls gaze away from toilet and instead lead it to the shower. She let go of her hand and face after that, opening the shower door and reaching in to turn on the water for Kara. The alien grabbed her hips hard enough to bruise once the water sprang into action, spurting out of the expensive shower head. The water didn't even get a chance to touch Lena's skin as within the blink of an eye she was picked up like she weighed nothing and placed a few feet away from the shower. She chocked on her own breath, making an embarrassing noise somewhere between a gasp and a whimper as her arms flailed uselessly around her, reflexively trying to find something to grab a hold of even though it was deeply unnecessary– Kara's grip was tight and sure around her waist, Lena's pretty sure she wouldn't have let her drop even if she was being shot by a bullet (though from the way she walked away unscathed from her spacecraft crashing into the Earth, Lena doubted a bullet would do much to deter the girl.) When she set Lena down the girl huffed, turning to Kara with a shell shocked and stern look. She tried to ignore _that_ impressive demonstration of strength and instead focus on the matter at hand.

"No Kara." She sighed, shaking her head to show her disapproval at Kara's accusing glare which had now extended to the shower as well. She grabbed a hold of Kara's unnaturally firm arm and pulled her a few steps back from the shower, which she had been puffing her chest at like it would make a move to fight her at any given moment. 

"A shower is for cleaning yourself." Lena told her, demonstrating her movements by walking further into the shower and putting her mud and grass covered foot into the stream of lukewarm water, watching as the mud started to turn liquid as it ran down her legs and swirled down the drain. She looked over to the alien for a reaction, who was giving her an odd but fascinated look, which further turned curious when Lena took some soap into her palm and rubbed the remaining dirt from her feet and legs before running it under the stream of water once more.

"Jrēnnïï läçqīe xēsiēd?" The alien asked curiously and with something akin to realization on her face. Lena just gave her a blank, confused stare before walking back out of the shower and nodding her head slightly with furrowed brows before wiping her now clean legs off with a towel. 

That seemed to be all the confirmation Kara needed and before Lena could even open her mouth to say more, Kara was stripping off her dress at lightning speed and letting it fall to the marble floor. Lena gasped scandalously, her eyes straying over the impressively unfair (seriously, who the fuck has abs like that? Is this woman a fucking Greek God?) body of the alien before snapping back up. Kara didn't have undergarments on and was just smiling obliviously at Lena before stepping into the shower. She reached her arm out hesitantly, feeling the water run innocently down her arm before she smiled and emerged herself under the stream with a content sigh. 

"Okay. I-im gonna go get you some clothes." Lena said with a small clap of her hands, the words more for her own scrambled brain then the alien running her head under the water. 

Kara didn't react and Lena just backed up and out of the bathroom with her eyes focused intently on staying leveled nearly up at the ceiling. She hit into the sink and wall before being able to scramble her way out of the room and into her own. She sighed heavily when she was out, looking back behind her once at the nearly closed bathroom door before walking over to find some clothes that'd hopefully fit the alien.

When Kara was done with her shower, she came out of the bathroom dripping wet, naked and with a happy smile stretched on her face. Lena, who had been innocently waiting on the bed with her phone on her lap, looked up only to be met with the sight of an extremely fit, extremely wet body. She squeaked (though she'd never admit to making the noise) and looked up at the high ceilings with a sigh on her lips. She didn't have the patience to explain the use of towels to Kara and instead just picked up the clothes laying besides her on the silk blue sheets before thrusting them in the blondes general direction. 

Lena's gaze stayed fixed on the ceiling, even as the alien stumbled about and slammed into something (most certainly breaking it in the process, but that was _fine_ ) she only looked down when Kara sat down next to her on the bed, her baby blue eyes locked on Lena's face with a bright smile on her petal pink lips. Lena took a chance and looked down at the girls clothes, which were much to small and messy; the shirt was on inside out and backwards, the collar loose around her neck and slightly ripped (she must have tugged at it) and the hem of the gray t-shirt going down to just above her navel, giving a peak of her rather sculpted abdomen and making Lena's brain short circuit for a solid minute. Her shorts were on right at least, though they were much to short and showed off her impressively long and tanned legs (Lena really tried to not let her eyes stray on those legs.) And really, Lena was just proud that Kara had been able to put on the clothes in the first place without a demonstration. 

Lena smiled at Kara in return, which seemed to make the blonde only happier. The raven haired beauty then climbed to her feet and grabbed a hold of Kara's wrist (a nice, safe and appropriate place where she couldn't risk breaking all 27 bones in her hand) before tugging her up, off the bed and out of the room. She tugged her all the way across the hallway before meeting the closed door of the guest room. She swung it open and pulled Kara inside with her.

The guest room was definitely less extravagant than Lena's bedroom, but it didn't lack comfort or luxury. There was a bathroom on the right wall, right by the bedroom door and on the furthest wall to the left was a queen sized bed with silky coal gray sheets, close to the colour of the light heather gray wallpaper that wrapped around the walls. By the bed was a night stand with an antique lamp and on the furthest wall to the left was a flat screen TV and a comfy gray couch. The floors were the same dark wood as Lena's, though a lot of it was covered by a big, shaggy white rug placed under the couch and surrounding areas, and the windows on the furthest wall from the door had large, ceiling high windows that looked out on the forest below them. 

Kara was looking curiously around the room but Lena ignored it in favor of hastily pulling the alien along to the bed, pushing her down on it unceremoniously with a tug on her broad shoulders before placing her hand on the girls upper chest, right where the loose collar of her shirt was located, before pushing her down into a laying position on the large bed. She ignored Kara's curious and confused look that was trained intently on her, in favor of tugging the sheets down and on to the aliens body. The blonde went without protest and Lena smiled comfortingly at her before making a gesture with her hands, folding them on top of one another and laying her titled head against them, her eyes closed and a fake, small snore coming from her as she demonstrated what she wanted the blonde to do.

The alien nodded her head in understanding with a smile on her lips, and Lena figured they must have beds similar to their own on Kara's home planet. Lena smiled at her before walking back to the door, wishing her a good night and flipping off the light. She dragged herself back to her own room, switching off the lights and stumbling into the cold sheets on her bed with a content sigh on her lips. The bedside alarm told her that she only had just over two hours to sleep before she had to be up and she planned on making the most of it. 

She shut her eyes and got comfortable on the bed, and was mere seconds away from falling into the comfort of sleep before she heard her old door creak, heavy footsteps on her floorboards, and the weight of someone laying down next to her. She scrunched up her eyebrows and turned to Kara with an incredulous stare, most likely looking rather grumpy if the small, awkward smile Kara gave her was anything to go by. The alien told her something in a foreign language, whispering to her like there was anybody else in the house that they may wake up by being too loud.

Lena sighed and shook her head before getting up from the bed, grabbing onto Kara's arm and pulling her back to her own room. She repeated her actions from minutes before, tucking the blonde into the bed with a small pat on her chest before turning back to go into her own room. She sighed as she laid down on the sheets, looked at the alarm clock before shutting her eyes and snuggling further into her layers of bedding. 

It lasted a little longer than last time, like Kara was attempting to fall asleep but couldn't, or she was just anxious about entering the room once again, but either way she ended up back and laying next to Lena– who glared grumpily at her, earning a hesitant and guilty smile from the blonde alien. They repeated the process once more, but when Kara just came trudging back in and flopped herself down on the bed besides Lena, the raven haired heiress just sighed and turned on her back. She gazed up at the high ceilings thoughtfully before turning her head to look at the blonde alien who was giving her the same exact look and repeating the same exact words to her that she had the last two times. 

Lena sighed, shaking her head before mumbling back faux sternly, "fine, you can stay tonight. But only tonight." 

She then turned back on her side, away from the alien with a mumbled "sweet dreams" besides herself and let sleep take hold of her, listening absently to the sound of the aliens breathing behind her and trying to forget the unbelievable events of the past few hours.


	3. III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena came to the conclusion, staring intently at the sleeping alien who had her trapped upon a bed with her steel like limbs, that Kara must be some kind of Goddess. One of the Goddesses that the Romans or Greeks blabbered on about for centuries, or possibly one of those angels that the Christians and Catholics were so obsessed with. 
> 
> If the Bible and all the ancient scriptures were written about this one girl in her bed - who was carved out like a statue and glowed like the sun - then maybe Lena could get behind the idea of religion afterall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not really sure about this chapter but whatever lol. sorry for any mistakes (:

When Lena woke up only about an hour and a half after she had let sleep succumb her, it was to the sun blaring through the ceiling high windows and reflecting off her emerald green irises, and to the sound of her alarm vibrating on her bedside table. It wasn't loud and it didn't have to be, Lena was a light sleeper and even the sound of a floorboard creaking could probably snap her awake. It was annoying, but also helpful in the possibility of something like a home invasion, she supposes. 

The thought of a home invasion was one that kept her up till the sun started to peak out through the horizon of lush green trees outside her window on more than one occasion since the trial had ended. She'd never admit it, not even to herself, because on the surface she liked to comfort herself with the probability that Lex – her older brother, her savior and best friend that promised to always love and protect her since the day she stepped foot on United States soil – would never in a million years purposefully harm her.

But then there was that thought, that disgustingly relevant feeling that clawed at her insides like a starving cat stuck in a box when the sun would set behind the trees and she had nothing but silence to occupy her mind once more. The thought that sounded a lot like the thousands of innocent people's screams when a nuclear bomb the colour of Lena's eyes exploded across their city and destroyed everything in it's path. The thought that Lex, with the deranged eyes he set unwaveringly on her while she was testifying against him, the ones that looked nothing like the warm ones that use to watch over her (the ones he got from their father,) would try to hurt her, or worse, for her betrayal to him, to their family, and to their country (as he believed.) 

Though, she thought rather absentmindedly, with a God-knows-how-strong alien (the same alien that tried to protect her from running water like it was a bullet just an hour after meeting her,) sleeping besides her– the criminal would probably have a lot more to worry about than she did if they were to break into her house. 

The thought comforted her.

She acted like it didn't.

She brushed off those thoughts, it was much to early and she had much to little sleep to be thinking about such trivial things, and besides, she had more dire things to worry about than the possibility of an attempt on her life. So she pushed the thoughts out of her mind and attempted to push herself out of bed with them– only then did she realise the weight, similar to the weight of one of those lap restraints they trap your body into before you ride a rollercoaster, placed heavily over her body.

Though it wasn't a lap restraint preventing gravity from pulling her off a sky high ride that was keeping her trapped against her mattress. No, this was much stronger it seemed, and came in the form of a long tan arm and leg thrown half hazardously across her midsection and intertwined into her bare legs. They weren't tight enough to hurt perse, just rather restricting. 

She brought her arms up and tried to push the limb off of her, but it was like trying to ply a steel pillar from your body with your bare hands. She then attempted slipping out of the hold but the hand laying besides her head had fisted the baby blue sheets and there was no way to slide under it without risking the endangerment of her very expensive and very new silk sheets. Her next course of action was to call Kara's name, first quietly and then loudly when that didn't work, but it didn't wake up the alien who was still snoring quietly behind her. 

She sighed and let her tensed body slump uselessly against the mattress in defeat. She could feel the aliens chest, covered in the grey cotton of one of her old, ripped up college t-shirts, rise and fall against her back as she snored soundlessly behind her. Their bodies didn't have an inch of space between them, Lena could feel the entire length of the blondes body pressed up against her back, accompanied by the soothing feeling of the aliens lips ghosting against her neck and the small, warm puffs of air she let out rhythmically falling deaf against her bare neck and making goosebumps rise upon her pale skin. She hadn't been cuddled with in God knows how long– before she had lost her family and her love, possibly even before that. She couldn't really remember, especially since Jack had never been one for spooning and would always push her away in the middle of the night, saying he ran cold and so did she, her poorly circulated body made him chilly and he needed to be warm in order to sleep.

She couldn't remember, and she wasn't sure she ever actually had been. 

She should have found it unnerving then, invasive even, being snuggled by a foreign alien she had met last night and knew next to nothing about. An alien that could possibly be dangerous and lethal, could find out she was a Luthor and crush every bone in her body with a twist of her fingers.

She should have found it unnerving.

She didn't.

She looked out the window to the sun that was slowly peaking out from the horizon, masking the dark shaded sky in a dusty blue and yellow as it shined through the tops of the April green trees like an iridescent halo and basked her miles of untouched green fields in a golden glow. The beauty of it reminded her of Ireland, of the Victorian boarding school she had learned to call home and the long window in her room that she was forced to share with seven other girls, of the miles upon miles of lushes green fields that sloped into hills, blooming with overgrown weeds and neatly cut rose bushes, growing only longer as the months passed by and the sun grew higher. She smiled lazily at the sight before forcing her eyes reluctantly back to the neon blue numbers on her alarm clock. She had wasted five minutes in bed, and those were five minutes she just couldn't spare if she was going to thrive as the new, flawless CEO.

So, with all the strength in her body, she was able to wiggle around until she was facing Kara. The aliens tan face is smoothed out and relaxed, absent of any and all imperfections as she slept. Lena took a second to examine the strange girl that came barriling into her life last night, she hadn't taken a good hard look at the alien, hadn't really had the time to during the whole chaotic "an alien just fell from the sky into my backyard and oh wow she has superpowers" situation. 

So she let her curious eyes take the time to draw over the young girls face; she had a defined jawline and sculpted cheekbones, reminiscent to one of those Greek sculptures that Lena had studied when she had visited Athens with Lex a few years back. Her lips were pink and plump, slightly parted and showing a peak of the blinding white and incredibly straight teeth that she had. Above those lips was a perfectly shaped nose that sloped into a tan forehead and blonde eyebrows– the right one had a small scar just underneath it and Lena really wished that she was able to ask Kara where she had gotten it. Her eyes were closed, smooth eyelids with long blonde eyelashes resting upon her cheeks, which were tan and perfect while Lena's usually had dark circles that gave way to her lack of sleep.

Lena came to the conclusion, staring intently at the sleeping alien who had her trapped upon a bed with her steel like limbs, that Kara must be some kind of Goddess. One of the Goddesses that the Romans or Greeks blabbered on about for centuries, or maybe one of those angels that the Christians and Catholics were so obsessed with; if the Bible and all the ancient scriptures were written about this one girl in her bed - who was carved out like a statue and glowed like the sun - then maybe Lena could get behind the idea of religion afterall. She was flawless, sculpted out like a Greek statue with defined muscles and perfect proportions. She was also dangerously powerful, incredibly strong and faster than light. Of course Lena has heard of aliens having powers that humans didn't before, it wasn't largely uncommon, but Kara had nearly crumpled her entire wall and room down from merely stumbling into it. The only other time Lena had seen power like that was with Superman who could hold airplanes and buildings like they were a dumbbell, but he had made it clear on several occasions that he was the last and only of his kind. 

So Lena silently thought as she slipped her hands up to rest upon sculpted cheeks, Kara must be a Greek God. She pushed those thoughts aside and shook Kara's head from side to side as she called the girls name, patting her cheeks and caressing the girls face until she saw ocean blue eyes peak out drowsily through long eyelashes. It took a second more but soon the girl had blinked her eyes open and was staring intently at Lena with a gaze much to intense for the raven haired heiresses liking.

"Kara, you have to let me go." Lena said quietly, bringing her hands off the girls face and trying to wiggle out of her hold. The alien looked momentarily confused, her eyebrows creasing together and her hold tightening on Lena, drawing the girls restless body against her own until they were pressed against each other, their faces merely inches apart. Kara smiled obliviously at Lena before burrowing her head into the girls neck.

"No, Kara. Bad Kara." Lena said louder than before, pushing the girls head out of her neck and shaking her head at the girl with a serious look in her emerald eyes, similar to the one her mother would give her when she was doing something wrong, which was just about all the time when it came to her mother. Thankfully the blonde got her message when Lena pushed her hands against the girls arms and attempted to move them off her body. Kara, rather reluctantly, took her arm away from Lena and scooted a few feet away from her on the bed, a slight frown down turning her lips. 

Lena smiled reassuringly at the girl before looking at the clock (she was definitely going to be late,) and scrambling off the bed with haste. She all but ran to the bathroom and started to get ready, brushing her teeth and hair before starting on her flawless makeup. She almost didn't notice when Kara came padding into the bathroom a handful of minutes later, a nervous look on her face as she stared threateningly at the toilet before switching over to watch in fascination as Lena applied liquid eyeliner to her eyelids. She didn't say anything, allowing Kara to observe her movements with an amazed look as she applied mascara and then her signature red lipstick, the last step in her makeup routine. She set down the small tube of deep red lipstick before turning to Kara and sighing.

Lena scavenged through her bathroom drawers before finding a toothbrush, still confined in plastic and cardboard. She ripped off the packaging and grabbed Kara's hand, bringing her closer to the vanity and demonstrating as she put a dab of toothpaste on the bristles before wetting it in the left sink and placing it gently in Kara's hand, bringing it up to her mouth and placing it inside the slightly parted lips. Kara looked bewildered but allowed Lena to do it without question, just watching, cross eyed as she stared at the brush in her mouth that Lena was scrubbing her teeth with in demonstration. 

When Kara got the hang of it, scrubbing her teeth as gently as she could manage (though Lena could still hear the toothbrush creak and snap in her hands,) Lena moved on to grabbing her hairbrush and running it through Kara's blonde hair, which she discovered wasn't even slightly tangled and had no need for brushing. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion but she brushed it off and moved to take the ruined toothbrush out of Kara's mouth and pointed to the sink as she threw away the remains of crumpled plastic. Thankfully the alien got the gist (having watched Lena brush her teeth) and spit the foam out of her mouth and took some running water (that Lena had turned on) in her hand before swishing it in her mouth and spitting that out as well. 

Lena smiled at her and nodded her head with pride, to which the alien smiled happily in return before following Lena dutifully as the raven haired woman brushed past her and back into the bedroom. Lena opened the door to her walk in closet, stepping in and quickly picking out a plain black, sleeveless dress that hugged her curves and had a modest neckline that wrapped around her neck and covered her defined collarbones. She grabbed a pair of heels with it and was about to drop the negligee she was wearing before the sight of a curious blonde caught in the corner of her vision. Lena sighed and stepped over to Kara, placing her hands on the girls shoulders and pushing her out of the room gently, putting her hands up in a gesture that said "wait" before walking back into the closet and closing the door behind her. 

She was in the middle of slipping the thin straps off her shoulders when the door flew open and a smiling alien walked over to her and stood by her expectantly. Lena yelped and pulled the negligee back up her body before it could slip and glared up at the blonde, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her back out of the room with a stern look, sitting the girl down on the bed.

"Wait." She said simply.

"W-wait?" Kara butchered the word with her thick accent and incorrect pronunciation, her baby blue eyes wide and wondering as they switched between Lenas eyes. Lena just nodded with an understanding look, repeating the word back a few times so the girl could hear how it's pronounced before putting her hands back up in a "wait" gesture, giving the girl a look until the blonde nodded in what Lena hoped was understanding. She then walked back to the closet and successfully put on her dress and heels, admiring herself in the full length mirror and deciding to allow her natural wavy hair to fall down her shoulders.

When she walked out of the closet she saw Kara, waiting patiently on her bed and staring blankly at the closet door. Her bored eyes quickly lit up when they landed on Lena and she jumped off the bed (which creaked under the pressure,) before walking over to Lena with a smile. Lena absently wondered if this girl ever stopped smiling, if her cheeks hurt from the constant stretch of her lips; Lena herself didn't regularly smile much, she had been nicknamed (by a bunch of prestigious bitches who used to shove underclassmen into trash cans) the "Ice Queen" all throughout boarding school from just how little emotion she showed after the year her mother had abandoned her there. Nobody, not even her best friend Samantha, could get her to truly grow a smile for longer then a few minutes at a time. But Kara, with her wide, curious ocean eyes and pearly white smile half the size of her face– she had this relentless way of getting Lena to smile brighter than the sun.

She tried to move on from the nearly unnerving thought that somebody (other than Lex and her father, two people she'd probably never see again,) could make her show so much vibrant emotion in such a short amount of time. Instead she grabbed the aliens hand and lead her to the closet, accessing her possibly obsessive amount of clothes in search of something that'd fit Kara's long legs and toned frame. 

She settled on a long, deep blue skirt that would usually go past Lena's knees and a flowy white blouse that was abnormally long so she could easily tuck it into her pants or skirt. She also grabbed a pair of clean underwear (one of the less lacey and revealing ones, which made up most of Lena's underwear,) and a sports bra (since she was pretty positive that her normal bras would be too big for Kara.)

She handed all of the items to Kara with a reassuring smile, which only slightly lessened the confused look on the aliens face before walking out of the closet and shutting the door, hoping that Kara could figure out the clothes without assistance and not rip them in the process. She prepared for work, ignoring the crashing in the large walk in closet that definitely indicated another one of her incredibly expensive items being broken, as she waited for Kara. 

The alien walked out a few minutes later, the skirt on right as well as the white sports bra that showed off just a tad to much cleavage for Lena's brain to function correctly for a handful of seconds. The blouse, however, was just hanging off Kara's shoulders, showing off her bra and giving a peak of the toned stomach that Lena couldn't stop dwelling on (though she'd never admit to that.) 

Lena sighed, looking to the ceiling as she willed herself even an ounce of strength, before looking back down. As cooly collected as she could manage with her brain turning into putty behind her eyes, she walked calmly over to Kara, who she was slightly taller than with her high heels, and grabbed a hold of the blouse, buttoning it up. She distanced her hands as far away as she could manage from the tan, toned skin that radiated warmth like a space heater, trying very hard to not let her knuckles brush up against the girls lean body or her eyes stray to long as she buttoned up the blouse and tucked it into the girls skirt. She didn't meet Kara's eyes, but she could tell the blonde was staring her down instead of observing Lena's movements like she should've been.

Lena ignored that and moved past her back to the closet, just praying to any God that her shoes fit Kara so the alien wouldn't have to walk around barefoot for the rest of the day. She grabbed a pair of flats, not trusting the alien to not crush one of her Louis Vuitton heels under her feet, before walking back to Kara and backing her onto the bed. The blonde willingly allowed herself to be led and just watched curiously as Lena kneeled down on hardwood flooring and placed the shoes on to her feet, they fit though they were rather tight and Lena made a mental note to take the alien shopping as soon as possible.

She sighed as she stood up, grabbing Kara's hand, picking up her purse in the other hand and leading the blonde out of her bedroom. She tugged her down the stairs until they reached the main level of the house where a kitchen was situated on the the right of the house, it had an open floor plan and the only thing separating the kitchen from the large living room was a line of marble counters that had dark wood cupboards above them. 

Lena walked into the kitchen, her heels clicking on the hardwood floors and echoing through the unnecessarily large house. She placed her purse on the counter and let go of Kara's hand, walking over to start some coffee (a necessity from how little sleep Lena had gotten,) and went to grab a bowl and some cereal for the alien who probably hadn't eaten in a while. 

As she was filling the bowl with fruity pebbles and milk she contemplated how she was going to explain to Jess and everybody else the blonde woman that she would be dragging along with her to work for God knows how long. It's not like she could leave her unattended in her house, and she didn't know anybody who would willingly watch over a reckless alien who broke almost everything she touched. But the girl was now her responsibility, whether she liked it or not. She's the one that found her, it was her property that the spaceship now laid on, and she's the one that Kara followed around like a lost puppy. The alien was now hers to watch over and take care of, to teach and keep out of trouble until the blonde was able to take care of herself in this new world.

But she also had a company to run, so Kara would just have to sit in her office with her as the raven haired girl worked. 

Lena was snapped out of her thoughts when the coffee machine started to beep, signaling that the coffee was done. Lena pulled out a spoon, placed it in the bowl and turned around just in time to see Kara's head snap towards the coffee machine in alarm. Her normally ocean blue eyes were quickly swallowed up by a burning orange colour that glowed and radiated like two mini suns seconds away from exploding, a beam of blistering light shot out from the girls eyes and promptly melted the coffee machine into nothing but dripping black plastic. 

Lena let out a small scream of alarm and ducked behind the marble island between the two girls, covering her head with her hands and kneeling on the floor as Kara's burning gaze switched over to her. As quickly as it came, it disappeared and Kara's ocean blue eyes appeared once more, confusion and alarm set in them as she scrambled over to Lena– who tried really hard not to flinch away when Kara grabbed a hold of her arms and easily yanked her to her feet before shielding her from the melted coffee machine with her own body. 

"What the fuck was that?!" Lena blurted out, her fear being quickly overridden by her scientific curiosity as she grabbed a hold of the confused aliens face and turned it from side to side, examining the now completely normal eyes staring at her in confusion.

"Can you do that again?" She asked, though it was made clear that Kara had no idea what she was asking as she just started at her blankly in response. She sighed in defeat when Kara's eyes stayed the same normal colour, slightly disappointed as she grabbed the glass bowl and placed it on the island. She took the spoon in her hand and placed some of the cereal in her mouth, chewing it and swallowing in demonstration before grabbing Kara's shoulders and sitting her down on one of the cushioned stools and placing the spoon in her hand. 

Kara hesitantly took it, very gently and cautiously, clearly scared of breaking even more of Lena's appliances, before making curious eye contact with Lena as she scooped up some of the cereal and placed it into her mouth. Looking to the raven haired girl for confirmation that she was doing it right, Lena nodded and smiled as Kara's eyes widened in wonder and dropped down to the bowl, shoveling more of the food into her mouth and munching on it with a look of amazement and pure joy. Lena laughed quietly before moving over to examine the coffee machine, or what used to be a coffee machine, more accurately. The plastic looked like it had taken to four different blow torches at once, melted down to nearly nothing and dripping down the counter, turning hard as it went. It kind of reminded Lena of 'The Persistence of Memory' painting her father used to have hung up on the wall in his office, the same one she used to stare at and analyze for hours on end while her father worked tirelessly besides her.

She looked back at Kara, who was sipping the milk out of her bowl with a hungry and amazed look in her eyes. She couldn't fathom how that girl, who was munching on cereal with wide eyes, looking more like a golden retriever puppy than a person, could shoot fucking laser beams out of her eyes and destroy just about anything with a squeeze of her hand. It just didn't make sense. Though this did further prove Lena's Greek Goddess theory, because what or who else could do something like _that_. 

The scientist in her itched with curiosity and she had to refrain herself from dragging the girl up to her home lab to test and prod at the limits of Kara's speed, strength, invulnerability, and now laser beam vision. But she didn't have time for that and she wasn't sure that Kara would even want her to do that– it's not like the girl could voice her opinion on the matter and Lena would never do anything without the blondes consent. 

She sighed heavily in wonder before moving over to give Kara seconds of the cereal, which she ate in a record speed. So Lena gave her more, which she also ate in just above a normal human pace. After five bowls of cereal Lena came to the conclusion that the girl was insatiable when it came to food, or she just hadn't eaten in God knows how long and was making up for lost time. Either way, this was also something Lena had to refrain herself from testing out.

A quick glance at the clock did tell Lena that she was about to be late to work however, so she quickly put away the milk and cereal, placing Kara's bowl in the sink and ignoring the grumbling protest that the blonde let out in annoyance, as well as a few unintelligible words. Instead, she grabbed a hold of the blondes wrist and sped walked out of the house, her purse around her shoulder as she locked up the house and walked down the elevated driveway until she reached her car.

They came to an abrupt stop however when Kara planted her feet on the ground and refused to walk further, which caused Lena, who had been opening the car door, to stumble at the quick stop, her body flying back and hitting against Kara's. She turned to look at the girl with a bewildered stare, but the alien was just standing there, staring at the car with an untrusting look. 

Lena sighed heavily, knowing that this was about to be a huge deal and just hoping to God that her very expensive car made it out still fully intact. 

"Darling it's okay. It's just a car." She told the girl, grabbing her cheeks and turning the girls gaze to meet her own. Soothing her fingers over the girls cheeks proved to work in the past so she did it again, running her hands down the girls face gently, repeating "it's okay" until she was able to lead the girl staring stediously into her eyes further towards the car. Kara went reluctantly, giving Lena an untrusting look as she pushed the blonde into the sleek black Rolls Royce with a reassuring smile before shutting the door.

She saw Kara's wide eyed, alarmed look as the door shut so she quickly ran to the other side of car, opening the door with haste and sitting in the driver's seat. Kara's alarmed gaze switched over to her as Lena shut the door, her tense body relaxing slightly against the leather seats as Lena smiled at her, grabbing her hand away from the expensive interior of her car which was creaking and bending under the girls grip and instead lacing their fingers together gently, silently hoping that her fragile hand wouldn't break under the girls grasp but taking the risk in an effort to soothe her.

With her other hand, she struggled slightly but was able to get the keys into the ignition and start the car. She had to pull her hand away from Kara's in order to put the car in reverse and pull out of the driveway, but it was probably for the best as the armrest that the blondes hand had fallen onto got some new fingerprints pressed into it as Kara's gaze flew around the car and looked out the windows, her eyes wide and scared, watching the green fields fly past them while Lena started to drive down the long, abandoned street. 

"It's okay, Kara." Lena reassured her, taking the rather reckless risk of interlacing her hand in Kara's own once again, prying her strong fingers from the armrest and using her other hand to cruise down the roads, continuously reassuring the alien - who was watching the world past them by with a look of fear and wonder - in the most soothing and reassuring voice she could manage, the Irish accent her mother had tried so hard to get rid of slipping through the seems of her velvety voice.

It took just under a half hour to get to L-Corp where she parked the car in her designated spot and turned it off before turning to look towards Kara, who no longer looked scared and instead just ragingly curious as she looked around the rather uninteresting sight of the parking garage like it was Disneyland. Lena let out a small chuckle, letting go off Kara's hand and getting out of the car. Kara did the same, watching Lena pull the door open with the handle and doing to same on her side, gently in order to not break it. She shut the door (which made an alarming creaking sound but Lena tried to ignore that tid bit of information) and all but skipped over to Lena who was waiting for her at the end of the car, a ghost of a smile on her face as she watched Kara. 

The blonde took a hold of Lena's hand, interlacing their fingers with a huge smile and a tilt of her head upwards, looking rather proud of herself. It was cute and Lena just didn't have the heart to take her hand out of the aliens hold when she was looking so pleased. So she just sighed before masking her face into a blank, authoritative look as she straightened out her back and tilted her chin up proudly, a power stance that her mother had made her practice every day. She looked every bit the powerful CEO that she now was.

She walked with thundering steps, her heels clicking loudly under her feet as she walked into her building. The security took one look at her and shuffled to the side, allowing her past them without a a key card or search like every other worker had to, they stared curiously at Kara but didn't stop to question her, Lena tugged the girl with her into a vacant elevator, pressing the top floor and waiting as the doors shut in front of them. Kara was to busy looking at the glowing button to freak out about the doors closing behind her like Lena was afraid she would, instead she was busying herself trying to push more of the buttons in order to make them light up. Lena had to hastily put her body in front of the other girl, grab her shoulder with her free hand and push the girl back and away from the buttons in order to stop the curious blonde who was frowning disappointedly at her while she reached out weakly to the buttons with her free hand, grumbling in protest.

She was stopped when the large metal doors opened again and led them to the top floor, which held Lena's office. The blondes eyes widened in amazement and she quickly forgot about the buttons in favor of tugging Lena off the elevator and onto the new floor with the same curiosity and wonder gleaming in her eyes that'd she'd had all day. Lena followed her, trying to keep control of the alien who was attempting to wonder off towards the huge, ceiling high window on the farthest wall on their right, but they were interrupted by a sudden voice.

"Good morning, Miss Luthor!" Jess called as she looked up from the papers on her desk, her eyes widening in wonder as her gaze set upon Lena, switched to Kara, and then fell to their intertwined hands. Her already sunny smile grew to the point that Lena thought it'd crack her face in half. 

The girl jumped abruptly from her desk, the spinning chair she had been sitting on flying back and hitting the wall in her haste. She ran around the desk to stand in front of the pair with that same, toothy smile on her face as her eyes locked with an amazed Kara, who was instinctively giving her the same radiant smile back. 

"Hello! I'm Jess, what's your name?" The girl greeted excitedly, clearly not used to Lena having guests. Her boss hated people, as far as Jess's experience went atleast. She'd known Lena for years, having worked as her personal assistant back in Metropolis where Lena had worked at Luthor Corp as the R&D director, and when the heiress had to take on the responsibility of her families company and decided to relocate away from the city that hated her guts, she asked Jess to come with her. 

So Jess knew the raven haired woman better than she knew herself, and she had never seen Lena show physical affection towards anybody other than Jack, but even then they were rarely ones for public displays of affection of any kind. So to see her boss, the infamous ice queen of National City (as magazines so lovingly branded her) holding a blonde ray-of-sunshine-looking woman's hand with the ghost of a smile on her lips– well let's just say it came as quiet the shock. But a good shock. A very good shock. 

"I'm Kara." The girl said shortly, interrupting Lena's words before they could leave her mouth, a proud smile on her lips as she said it.

"Well it's very nice to meet you Kara, how are you feeling today?" She asked with a vibrant smile, her voice thinly concealing the joy and curiosity radiating off of her, which the blonde returned easily. 

The taller girl paused for a second, seemingly contemplating the question with her eyebrows furrowed and her smile slightly dampening. Lena opened her mouth again, an excuse balancing on the tip of her tongue, but Kara interrupted her once more,

"Dizzy." She told the shorter girl with a self assured nod of her head, a rather proud smile spreading across her lips as she tilted her head up happily, the expression on her face reading that she was clearly pleased with herself for the word that she had decided on, even looking over to Lena for validation. Lena chocked on her own words and Jess's smile slightly dampened.

"Dizzy? Have you eaten yet? I can order you some food if you'd like?" She asked Kara but directed the question to Lena who looked rather stressed out as she nodded in confirmation, cutting off any more words Kara could say with her own instead,

"Yes, that'd be great Jess, thank you. Could you please order in from that pizza place down the street?" Lena asked hastily, ignoring the bewildered look Jess gave her (of all the time she knew Lena, the girl had never once asked for pizza or anything else equally greasy and fat filled.) Lena brushed off any more questions Jess would ask before she could even ask them by breezing past the secretary with a small smile, Kara in tow as she trailed behind her.

"Of course, Miss Luthor." Jess said with a confused but intensely pleased smile of her own as she watched Lena drag Kara, who gave her one last vibrant smile, into her office and let the door slam shut behind her.

Jess giggled to herself with a shake of her head, wondering if her boss had finally found herself somebody worthy of her time and attention. The secretary couldn't think of anybody that'd fit her cold and detached (but incredibly soft) boss than the human equivalent of a puppy dog.


	4. IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She could see them, clear as day whenever Kara laid her eyes on Lena for too long, like she was the only thing that the alien had found in this world so far that was worth a second glance.
> 
> But it was still difficult, depicting those emotions, tearing them apart from one another and unraveling the meaning behind them as though they were a puzzle. 
> 
> It was hard to tell what the alien was thinking, and why she seemed to always be staring at Lena. And the heiress really just wished that she could ask at this point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahahaha i wrote this entire thing at four in the morning and I'm not even completely sure it's coherent. 
> 
> this chapter is meant to pretty much be a filler chapter btw, that's why not a lot happens— I got like halfway through writing the chapter after this and was having a rlly fun time doing it before I realized I needed one before it to make it make more sense. 
> 
> so the chapter after this one will be a lot more fun and eventful, I promise. also you get to finally see Alex in that one soooo
> 
> thank you for the comments, you guys are so sweet!! and sorry for any mistakes!

Lena watches in an intense amount of fascination that she wasn't aware she could hold for anything non-technological, scientific or philosophical, as the woman across from her all but inhales an entire New York style pizza that could easily feed eight people.

She doesn't know what's so eye catching about this– most people (people like her mother and just about everybody that she grew up around) would even grimace, cringe, probably make a snide remark and turn away at the sight of a girl as beautiful as Kara being so incredibly unladylike and disregarding of social norms as she shoved slice after slice of cheese pizza down her throat with a huge smile on her face and a look of absolute delight swirling in her dazzling blue eyes.

But maybe that's why it is so fascinating to Lena, why _Kara_ is so very fascinating to Lena. 

The world– the sick, twisted world that has been cryptid with centuries upon centuries of oppression and discrimination against anybody that wasn't a perfectly obscene white male. The world that teaches young girls since the minute they learn how to talk to be quiet and unimposing, to be ladylike and dainty, to smile and to preen and to never sit under florescent lights that are to harsh on your features or wear clothes that will brand you as a slut– while also never wearing clothes or saying things, doing things that will make you unappealing to the male gender.

The invisible lines that women are made to balance upon everyday of their lives, without being told and without speaking about it. The rules that their mothers and every other member of society all but carves into their brains as they grow up in this world moulded around the male agenda.

Those rules, those norms, that lifetime of pressure and scolding to be nothing short of perfect; the internalized misogyny that's scripted into everybody's mind, that's carved into the roots of this Earth and everybody that's grown up on it– that just simply doesn't apply to Kara. 

She didn't grow up here, she's spent less than two days on this earth and she has no idea what it means to be ladylike. To be polite and gentle, to stand up straight and confident without being imposing or too demanding. To eat with your mouth closed and to take atleast a twenty second break and wipe your mouth between each bite that you take. To only orders salads and to watch your frame like it's the only thing in this world that truly matters, to never talk about your own perks or acknowledge your own beauty because it's unflattering and narcissistic. 

She has no idea, no correlation or care for the years upon years of training and reconditioning that Lena just can't seem to shake. 

The lessons her mother taught her: how to walk in heels when she was eight, how to wave like a lady when she was nine, how to stand up straight while accenting your better attributes when she was ten (this accompanied a painful amount of books being balanced upon her head and arms as she walked down the long descending hallways of the Luthor mansion,) how to apply makeup (without being "a whore about it") when she was eleven, how to smile and how to dress like a proper lady when she was twelve, how to talk to, act around, and address men so they'll like you more when she was thirteen, and more than a year dedicated to learning how to be the perfect housewife that her mother planned to make her when she was old enough to marry off to the richest suitor, when she was fourteen and fifteen.

But then her father died, and her lessons on being ladylike - while less intense and excruciating - were still continued by older Irish women at her boarding school. 

These lessons were things that had been engraved in Lena's mind, in her personality and her body, in the way she walked and in the way she talked. Things she couldn't stop doing even if she wanted to. They were a part of her now, just like they were a part of every other girl Lena grew up with. 

And Lena despised the world for teaching her, and every other person that identified as a female (and even some that didn't,) that.

So maybe _that's_ why she enjoyed watching Kara scarf down her food so much. Why she had given up on typing out a progress report on her laptop and instead was enraptured with everything that was Kara; of the way she slumped back against the couch and spread her legs out oddly in Lena's skirt like she couldn't care less about her posture and the disrespect it gave off. How she hummed loudly every few seconds to express her pleasure of the food. How she didn't take breaks to breath or to drink the water Lena had given her. How she had red tomato sauce smeared across one of her cheeks that she hadn't taken notice of yet and even more splattered across her fingers-- which would probably end up on Lena's expensive white couch at some point, but she couldn't bring it in herself to care. How she had a glassy, happy look in her ocean eyes as she stared contently back at Lena in an attempt to express her appreciation and joy for the brand new type of food that she liked decidedly more than the fruity pebbles. How the grease smeared across her pretty pink lips shined and reflected in the florescent lighting of the brightly lit room, drawing much to much attention to those pillow lips and successfully dragging Lena's eyes away from her work.

Yeah, maybe she was so enraptured because Kara was an enigma, like a new born baby that hadn't yet been touched by the hatred, bigotry and oppression that came with growing up on Earth. 

Or maybe it was just that Kara was really fucking pretty, even when she was scarfing down what should've been an unattractive amount of food but just, _wasn't._

Who's to say really. 

Either way, Kara was done with the entire pizza in a matter of minutes. She finished it off by gulping down the entire glass of water Lena had set in front of her in one go, placing it down on the white rimmed glass table and leaving cracks reminiscent of spiderwebs spread out across both the objects, giving them both an impressionable look as though they were seconds away from shattering.

Lena takes a long look at the glass: the slivers that look more like veins the longer you stare, unfurled like the branches to an ancient tree that's been around for one to many years, twisting up the expensive flute and stretching up the cylinder. It's a picture of innocence, of fragile disposition. A brittle glass that was once strong enough to hold the weight of water, now splintering under the pressure, seconds away from shattering and erupting all over the pristine white, ceramic floors. It's almost metaphorical.

_It's almost painful,_ Lena thinks, _how much she relates to that glass and the weight that it struggles to hold._

She turns to look at Kara then, but of course, as it seems she always is, the blonde is already staring at her. There's always a look in her eyes when she stares at Lena, a jumble of something in her baby blue irises that the raven haired girl just can't seem to depict. 

She remembers a quote she used to mourn over back when her father grew ill and started spending more time in hospital beds than his own, and she turned to the stacks of poetry - Shakespeare and Whitman, Angelou and Dickinson - that her father kept in his office for comfort. The same office her mother had slapped her across the face for venturing into when she had found her one evening, curled up on the uncomfortable couch in the blanket her father had gotten her, reading Theodore Roethke until she could coax herself to sleep.

The slap had left a light bruise and a vermilion cut where her mother's bulky wedding ring had collided with her cheekbone— that was the last time Lena had picked up a book of poetry by her own free will. 

The quote though, the one that rang like a forgotten melody in her ears whenever she looked into Kara's enigmatic eyes, was one that William Shakespeare had written and engraved in Lena's mind even after all these years of absence. It went something like this: _"Your eyes are like windows to your soul. They shine and bedazzle as the stars do the sky. They are like diamonds that mesmerize the person looking at them."_

Her father used to say something similar to her, _"The eyes are a window to the inner workings of the human mind."_

And Lena had never truly gotten either of the quotes when she was younger. She used to stare for hours at her own eyes in the mirror, and then even longer at other people's when that proved futile– just waiting for a pinnacle of information to slip through the coloured irises, like a moving picture on a screen, displaying what the person was feeling, what they were thinking. 

It wasn't until she looked into Kara's eyes that she truly got the turn of phrase. And it wasn't a picture, it wasn't a movie or a computer screen telling her what the girl was feeling, but it was an obvious window of emotion; it was like she had laid her heart bare across her eyes, allowing just anybody to see the range of emotions she was feeling raging a war behind her pupils.

She could see them, clear as day whenever Kara laid her eyes on Lena for too long– like she was the only thing that the alien had found in this world so far that was worth a second glance. But it was still difficult, depicting those emotions, tearing them apart from one another and unraveling the meaning behind them as though they were a puzzle. 

It was hard to tell what the alien was thinking, and why she seemed to always be staring at Lena. And the heiress really just wished that she could ask at this point. 

She wished she could communicate the trickling feeling she got, like hot water pouring through her hair and running down her spine, whenever Kara stared at her.

But she couldn't. 

She couldn't find the words and even if she could, there would be no way for Kara to understand them.

So she broke her staring contest with the unblinking alien and instead grabbed her laptop, pulling it into her arms and raising from the couch. She picked up the slice of pizza she had grabbed from the box but hadn't taken more than one small bite from and handed over to Kara with a weak smile, observing the way the girls face lit up like a child's on Christmas morning, before turning to go sit back at her desk and refocus her attention on the spreadsheet she had been attempting to fill out.

She got all of maybe a hundred words typed into the PDF before Kara was sat in front of her desk in one of the cushioned chairs that could spin, long done with her pizza and now with a bored look etched across her face. Lena ignored her, only keeping a side eye on the girl to make sure she didn't break anything important.

That was when Kara found a book.

Lena had a small pile of them on her desk, mostly philosophy of science and psychology of religion books Lex had gifted her throughout the years that she would card through when her work load eased off. Kara had picked the first one off the pile gently, a Carl Sagan novel that was worn down and weathered out in a way that only well loved books could be. She held it in her hand, bouncing it on her fingers like she was testing the weight of the object before staring to flip through pages.

At first Lena didn't pay her much mind, just listened absentmindedly as Kara flipped softly through the sheets of paper. It wasn't until the mild noise grew louder and faster that Lena's eyes flickered up and over her laptop screen to land on the amazed look Kara was exhibiting as she dragged her finger up and down the pages in a quick manner, making the pages flip rapidly under her ministrations.

Her pupils were wide as her nails dragged against the pages and the look in her eyes-- absolute astonishment as she fiddled with the book— slapping it against her hands and listening to the resounding _smack_ of the rubbed down paper back against her stern hand, opening it up and leafing around until she found words that interested her (Lena highly doubted she could actually read them, but she hovered her fingers over the paper anyway, squinting at the black inked words like she was trying to make sense of them,) and grabbing the spine of the book, flipping it back and forth tediously and watching as the pages fall like dominos to one side and then the other harmoniously— was to adorable to interrupt what would probably end with one of her favorite books being ripped in half. 

So Lena went back to her work, ignoring the fidgeting to the best of her abilities until she heard the sure sound or a _rip_ resonate throughout the silent room. Lena's eyes snapped up to the guilty look on Kara's face, a frown on her pouty lips as she held the book that Lex had given Lena for Christmas a few years back, torn into two sections and crippled in her strong hands. 

Kara looked up at her apologetically and carefully sat the two halves of the book back on the table, one stacked onto the other. Lena felt panic run through her veins for about half a second, thinking about the look on Lex's face when he had given it to her on Christmas morning. But then the image of Lex in an orange jumpsuit, chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles, trapped against the table in the courtroom as he glared at her with a look of ice cold hatred in his eyes– quickly replaced the Christmas memory and Lena felt nothing but comfort for the alien staring sadly at her. 

"It's okay." She whispered to the alien reassuringly, giving her a small smile and an assured nod of her head, waiting patiently for the alien to smile back before she allowed herself to focus back on her work.

Kara was silent for a few more minutes, lounging in the chair motionlessly like she was trying hard not to move and break anything. 

But that only lasted for so long.

It was an accident at first, she had reached for one of the knick knacks on Lena's desk to observe in-between her fingertips when the chair span lightly to the right, almost throwing the blonde off her equilibrium and making her gasp loudly. She steadied herself easily, but her proclivity for the shiny object was quickly cut off and replaced by her inclination towards the chair instead.

She first tried to mimic her action from before, using her legs to gently nudge her towards the right. She gasped quietly in another momentum of amazement as the chair swung to the right with her legs, before throwing them to the left. The chair followed her movements closely, and that was enough to keep the blonde entertained for a good few minutes, swinging back and forth gently, before she was testing her luck and putting slightly more pressure into her legs, kicking off the ceramic floors, folding her long legs under her and giggling cheerfully as the chair spun around in a full 360° a few times before slowing down.

She did this for a while, Lena wasn't sure for how long and she couldn't measure it with the amount of words she had jotted down this time because she had gotten exactly no work done since she had heard the aliens resounding gasp. She was instead enraptured in watching the young blonde, so simply astonished and enamored with the way something as simple as a spinning chair worked.

Kara was entertained by the chair but Lena was entertained by Kara.

It wasn't until Kara put a little to much pressure into her legs to kick herself off, leaving even more cracks branching out through the tiled flooring, that she ended up breaking the chair. She had span violently around, like a merry-go-round being thrown with to much force, making the blonde and her chair nothing but a blur in Lena's vision for a few seconds. Kara was giggling happily to herself, but instead of slowing down like it usually would, the chairs top simply came flying off with Kara on top of it.

The top of the chair was seemingly unscrewed from the frame of the chair like you'd need a screwdriver to dismantle, and flew like a frisbee a few feet across the room, before landing and screeching across the ceramic floors with Kara on top of it. 

Lena watched in horror and astoundment as the now ruined chair laid torn in half across her room, Kara on top of it with a slightly guilty but otherwise overjoyed look passing over her face as she laughed loudly. Lena came scrambling over to her a few seconds later, finally getting her bearings after watching such a bizarre act and quickly helping Kara to her feet, though the giggling girl hardly needed the help.

She was unharmed, of course she was. She had fell out of the sky last night, being tossed through three feet of air could hardly do anything to deter her. 

Still, Lena looked her over for sign of injury and when she was satisfied that the amused girl hadn't been harmed she moved over to look at the damage she had done; the chair was completely dismantled, with the top now snapped in half and crumbled from the weight of the steel-like alien falling on it. Her floor had cracks renovating through it where Kara's feet had pushed off it, and black streaks laid bare against the contrast of pristine white tile where the top of the chair had slid across it.

Lena sighed, making a note to call maintenance with a small apology before they left for the day, before turning to look at the guilty alien who was giving her a small, bashful smile as she shifted nervously on her feet.

It was adorable, because of fucking course this Greek Goddess could never find an unflattering look, and Lena didn't have the heart to be mad that Kara had done thousands in damage to her office already. 

Instead she just sighed, grabbing Kara's wrist gently and moving her over to the couch. Sitting her down on it so the alien was forced to look up at her with those wide, innocent ocean eyes and wiping her cheek which still had a barely noticeable smudge of red sauce on it, with her thumb. The alien gave her a small hesitant smile then as Lena essentially cradled her face ( _totally unintentionally, she was just cleaning up her flawless skin smeared with left over pizza sauce, not finding an excuse to touch her or anything, because that'd be weird,_ ) and giving her the same smile in return.

It was then that she was hit with an idea, staring into the child-like stare that Kara was giving her.

Jess had a kid now (not really her kid perse but her boyfriend's kid who she was forced to take to work with her sometimes when the babysitter fell through,) and Lena happily kept a few stacks of children's picture books on the lowest shelf in her bookshelf to keep the little boy occupied when both the women were busy with their own important work and couldn't play with him. Luckily they were almost all educational (teaching colours, sounds, textures, objects, etc.) because if Lena was going to be an aunt she was going to be a smart one. And it wasn't like Kara could read them, but based on how easily she could pick up English words, maybe Lena could teach her a thing or two about reading that'd keep her occupied.

So she motioned for Kara to stay, saying a "Wait," that the blonde repeated back dutifully like earlier this morning, before walking over to her desk, grabbing her laptop and a few of the children's books that'd be easiest to depict, before going over to sit next to Kara on the couch. 

The blonde watched her movements with wide, curious eyes as she made herself comfortable besides Kara, folding her legs under her body and turning towards the fascinated girl before opening up one of the children's books that was meant to teach the kids colours, displayed by objects and the word that were in those colours. And then she started to read to Kara, pointing at the colours in the book before finding something in the office that could match and repeating the word. Kara quickly got the game and would repeat the word back to her before finding something that matched the colour as well with the biggest, brightest, and proudest smile on her face as she did so, looking over to Lena for validation once she had found the colour and repeated the word that matched it.

Lena gave her all the enthusiasm that her preschool teacher had given her when she was learning the colours, mostly just because Kara would get this prideful look on her face once she did and smile so hard it'd nearly break her face in half before speeding at a definitely non-human pace back to the couch to sit next to Lena and listen intently as she read more. 

It was adorable, like Lena had a new born puppy to teach the ways of the world to, and she found herself smiling so hard it hurt her mouth after a while.

After a bit of practice with that, Lena started trying to teach Kara the sounds of each letter, listening closely as Kara parroted the sound with a concentrated look wrinkling her face. When she got pretty okay at that Lena would string the word together with each syllable to make the actual word, which Kara would repeat at least ten times before getting a halfway decent handle on the pronunciation.

It was tiring process, but a rewarding one. Lena couldn't help but smile like the sun whenever Kara pronounced a word correctly or remembered the sound of a letter, which in return made Kara smile even brighter and gently rock up and down in excitement.

It wasn't until Lena only had an hour before L-Corp would close that she gave Kara more books to attempt to read over herself and admire the drawings of before propping her laptop upon her lap and attempting to get as much work done as she could as quickly as humanly possible, only taking small breaks in order to help Kara when the blonde would gently (gently to her atleast, but hard enough to leave a small imprint on Lena's skin for a handful of seconds before it bounced back to its normal colour,) poke at Lena's leg and point to a word or letter she couldn't understand.

—————— 

When Lena finally got Kara home – having to drag the alien away from her books which she had become obsessively enamored with, and from the now brightly, neon coloured lit streets of National City after the sun had set– she dragged Kara upstairs and got her ready for bed, repeating what she had done this morning but in reverse:

Having to stare up at the roof with her bottom lip between her teeth as she focused intently on the moulded ceiling and definitely _not_ the toned abs and soft sports bra brushing against her hands as she helped Kara unbutton the blouse and pull it off her shoulders, same with blindly finding the zipper on the skirt and tugging it down so Kara wouldn't tear it, before shoving the same pajamas at Kara as the night before and stumbling out of the room (smacking against four different objects and walls,) until she made it to the bathroom.

She then took a shower there (after nearly yelling at Kara for barging in on her in nothing but her underwear, having to repeat the process of sitting her on her bed and telling her to wait, while trying to ignore the way that Kara's darkened blue eyes trailed over her body with an eerily similar look to the one she had given the pizza after she had taken a bite of it earlier,) then had Kara take a shower after her (having to endure once again catching a glimpse of Kara undressing in lighting speed before jumping into the stream of warm water happily, _God help her._ )

The rest of the getting ready for bed was decidedly less scandalous (though Lena did catch Kara staring at her body a lot more than she stared at her face, which she also chose to ignore because the blonde probably wasn't doing it intentionally and Lena was most likely just a gay fucking mess making things up.) Kara broke another toothbrush and Lena had to make a note in her phone to go get a lot more (preferably bamboo ones because Lena was environmentally conscious, thank you,) of them. Kara watched intently from a few feet behind her as Lena took off her makeup this time and brushed her hair and teeth. The entire time they were getting ready for bed with one another, Kara was filling the silence by dutifully finding different colours (though Lena's bathroom was mostly just black and white,) and pointing out a butchered resurrection of the name of the colour with a pleased smile on her face, looking over to Lena for confirmation every time. 

She did this all throughout the house, getting even more excited when Lena grabbed her wrist and led her out of the bathroom, out of her bedroom, and down the hall into the guest bedroom, since there was so many more colours for her to remember the name of. 

Lena set her down on the barely touched bed that Kara had decidedly _not_ slept in the night before, laying the alien down and tucking her into the sheets as the blonde patted them with a smile, 

"G-Grey." She told Lena with a broad smile and a thick accent, to which the raven haired woman laughed breathlessly and nodded her head, patting the sheets over Kara's chest as well,

"Yes, darling. Grey. Now go to sleep, okay?" Lena told her in a gentle voice, giving her a soft smile before turning off the light, throwing her one last goodbye and walking back to her bedroom.

She couldn't go to sleep yet, even though she had barely gotten any last night and it was already nearly eleven at night. But she had spent all day teaching Kara, or watching Kara, or listening to Kara, or just, _Kara_ – so really, she just didn't get any fucking work done, okay? And she had deadlines she needed to meet, so she walked down spiral stairs to go make herself some coffee that'd keep her eyes from drooping closed-- before laying her tired gaze upon the melted black puddle dripped down her marble counters that had been her very expensive espresso machine only hours beforehand. 

She sighed in defeat, bringing her hand to pinch at the bridge of her nose before deciding to deal with the mess when she was a little more awake, and trudging back upstairs with a frown. When she entered her dimly lit bedroom she was instantly hit with the sight of Kara, gentle and silent as she tried to sneak into the empty bed that Lena was about to occupy.

She sighed again, heavier this time, before walking silently over to Kara, who had heard her footsteps before she even entered the room it seemed and was now giving her a guilty look, and grabbed her hand. She tugged her back to the guest bedroom, ignoring Kara's grumble of protest as she pushed her into the bed, tucked her into it, and wished her a goodnight before hurrying back to her room because she really didn't have the time for _this_ again.

In a futile attempt to keep herself awake and conscious, she turned on the flat screen TV mounted on the furthest wall from the bed-- the one she had rarely used since she had moved in, and let it drone on about the news. She then grabbed her laptop, got comfortable sitting up in her bed, and got to work typing away at the keyboard.

It was a shorter range of time, this time when Kara came trudging into her room with a sleepy and guilty look plastered on her face as she walked over and slipped silently under the sheets next to Lena– who just watched her do so with an unimpressed stare. When Kara was safely under the blue sheets (she whispered the word blue under her breath as she did this,) she pocked her head out with a shy smile on her lips and her blonde hair mused messily around her face. 

She looked adorable, like always, and it was all Lena could do not to melt into a puddle and coo over her. Instead, she just rolled her eyes with a tired sigh and moved back to look at her laptop.

For Kara's credit, she didn't freak out to much about the TV playing moving pictures, or not as much as Lena would've thought anyways (ex. she gasped excitedly when her gaze laid upon it, her eyes widen to twice their size comically, and she sat up, scooted down the bed to be closer to it and stared unwaveringly at the moving pictures in fascination. Lena made a mental note that this was now also a new way of keeping the alien entertained and far away from anything breakable.) 

But Lena was able to get all of her work done successfully and in record time with the alien so distracted and silent, and it was only about an hour later that Lena was shutting her laptop and setting it besides her on her nightstand. She was about to turn off the television too (much to the aliens annoyance, most likely,) when Kara saw something that made her promptly _freak the fuck out._

Lena didn't even have time to react before Kara was yelling, loudly and chaotically just like she had the night Lena had found her, as she scrambled out of bed and moved quickly towards the TV. Lena only had enough time to get up and block her path so she didn't run right through the TV, and probably the wall, in her haste to touch the very fragile screen, yelling a "be careful, Kara!" Luckily the girl took enough time to gently push her to the side before getting as close to the TV as she could manage without breaking it between her fingers. 

She started pointing frantically and impatiently at the TV, yelling in her native language and whipping her head back towards Lena every few seconds with a look that just begged her to understand her distress. Lena tilted her head to the side in confusion, her eyebrows drawing together as she nodded her head almost stiffly at Kara before allowing her gaze to wonder up towards the TV, trying to figure out what had gotten the alien so worked up. 

On the large screen was a news broadcast of Superman in his red and blue spandex suit, cape flying behind him and perfect bone structure scrunched up in concentration as a news feed showed him stopping a train from running off some collapsed tracks that had fallen into the sea underneath it and would take the train full of people with it if it weren't for Superman's God-like strength.

He was successful and nobody was injured, because of course he was, he's _Superman_ after all.

Lena's eyes flickered between the screen and towards the blonde who was still frantic, flailing her arms around and yelling unintelligibly at Lena, who couldn't make out anything but the words "Kal-El Zor-El" that she had screamed out the night before as well.

They seemed familiar for some odd reason, like Lena had heard them before. But she couldn't figure out where.

It wasn't until she looked towards the screen again and saw the news reel continue on to show a fight that the superhero had partaken in in Metropolis the day before: lasers were bursting out of his previously baby blue eyes and were burning another alien who had been wreaking havoc on the city. The lasers were uncanny to the ones that Kara had used on her coffee machine previously this morning, as was the strength that he used to stop the train full of people while walking away unpenetrated.

That's when it clicked in Lena's head.

All of the pieces to the puzzle fell harmoniously into place under Lena's tired mind: Kal-El Zor-El was the name that Superman had given an interviewer when he had first surfaced in the media, it was one of the first things the one person who he had allowed to interview him (Lois Lane,) had asked. What was his original name. He had answered Kal-El Zor-El. 

Lena remembered because of how many times Lex had spat the words like they were venom on his tongue. 

Kal-El Zor-El was Superman. Superman had the same powers as Kara. And Kal-El Zor-El was the first person Kara tried to find when she crash landed in Lena's backyard. 

Lena's eyes snapped over to Kara, who was still yelling at her and pointing towards the screen with one hand while tapping her chest with the other,

"Are you Kara Zor-El?" She asked simply, quietly in an unsure tone. She wasn't positive that they were related, though it was obvious that they were atleast from the same planet. But she got her answer in the form of Kara speeding inhumanly in front of her, grabbing her arms hard enough to leave a bruise, and nodding her head so rapidly it almost caused objects in the room to fly off their places when the wind current she was creating hit them. 

She gave a very incoherent respond of, "Këz, Këz, këz–" and then when Lena just furrowed her brows in confusion, she quickly switched in a thick accent to, "yes, yes, yes!" 

Lena gave her a huge smile, firstly proud of Kara for picking up on the word "yes" and it's meaning, and secondly proud of herself for understanding the girl correctly. She grabbed onto Kara's arms as well, digging her fingers into the unbending skin and nodding her head rapidly in return, "You're from Krypton?" 

Kara's response was more confirmation in a jumbled mix of English and what Lena now knew as Kryptonian as she nodded her head and picked Lena up in her arms in a hug strong enough to make Lena's ribs creak. Lena's feet left the ground and air left her lungs as she wrapped her arms around the other girls broad shoulders in surprise and tapped her back in alarm, muttering "can't breath" over and over until the overjoyed alien got the memo and let up on the hug, not squeezing her anymore so she could take a deep breath but still effortlessly holding her in her arms while smiling up at her like she had consumed the sun into her smile.

Lena sighed as air filtered back into her body and her ribs stopped screaming in protest. She hesitantly perched her hands onto the girls shoulders and wrapped her legs around her waist when it was clear by the strong hold and vibrant smile that she wasn't going to put her down anytime soon, 

"So you need to find Superman? Or, Kal-El?" She corrected herself midway through, knowing that Kara probably didn't know him by his superhero title. The girl squeezed her just a little tighter, unconsciously like she wasn't aware she was even doing so, and started rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, bouncing slightly in excitement as she nodded her head rapidly and answered in Kryptonian.

"Okay, yeah. Yeah, that's great. I- I can do that." She said unsurely but comfortingly, even though Kara couldn't really understand her and only got the message by the way Lena smiled at her and nodded her head.

Kara freaked out again, blabbering excitedly in Kryptonian and spinning Lena around in a circle as she laughed and hugged her tight enough to leave a bruise. Lena smiled and laughed with her, nodding her head and letting her pale hands splay out the aliens strong, tan shoulders in order to stabilize herself.

But there was only run thing running through her mind as the alien celebrated, which was _shit._

_Fucking shit._

_Shit, shit, shit._

How in the fuck was Lena Luthor, infamous sister to Lex Luthor – who had just attempted to murder Superman only about a month prior, and coincidentally ended up murdering thousand's of innocent life's in the process – suppose to contact Superman, who was under the impression that he was the only living member of his family, and coax him over to National City to meet Kara.

He wouldn't believe her, and he sure as hell would think it was another trap in an attempt to kill him.

And he'd probably tell the police, who would try to take Kara away from her if they found out about her, because she was reckless and dangerous and surely should not be living with a fucking Luthor of all people. 

And then they'd probably try to mould her into another crime fighting, people protecting, superhero, when the girl barely knew how to say the word "yes" and was innocent and naive like a new born golden retriever.

And then her brother and her mother would know there was yet another Kryptonian on earth and would no doubt go fucking ape shit and try to murder her as well. And then Lena for protecting her.

And even if all of that wasn't a issue– _how in the hell was somebody suppose to even get in contact with Superman in the first place?_ She had absolutely no idea. 

So she just smiled with Kara, because she couldn't communicate any of this to the excited girl and she rather bask in the joy and love that Kara was giving her as she blabbered on and on about something Lena couldn't comprehend and span her around in circles, then mourn over these issues she'd eventually have to face.


	5. V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's only been two weeks but Lena couldn't really remember what it was like to _not_ have Kara in her life. 
> 
> So maybe (definitely) it was depressing. But by the way Kara smiled like she'd just won the lottery every single time she made Lena laugh– it was probably safe to assume that the other woman was plenty happy with the arrangement as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof, this was a long boy to write and I'm honestly one of those writers that is much better at descriptions than dialogue, but I hope my attempt at actual conversation wasn't to bad.
> 
> and yes, Alex isn't the nicest in this one but I promise she'll warm up.
> 
> oh and btw I'm probably going to be posting less frequently bc covid-19 is a bitch and my families real struggling so I have to pick up a lot more hours of working to support them. just an apology in advance for when I fall behind a lil :))
> 
> anyways tho, thank you so much for your love and comments!! y'all have no idea what it means to me. hope you enjoy this chapter <3 <3

It had been exactly two weeks since Kara had seen Superman – or Kal-El as she so strongly insisted on calling him – on Lena's TV. A long, long two week that felt more like a lifetime than the actual 336 hours that had left Lena exhausted nearly half to death, though also happier then she could ever remember herself being

It was two weeks filled with Kara; Kara slipping into her bed every single night to cuddle up next to her, whispering incoherently in what she now knew was Kryptonian and always, without fail, ending up waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat– blabbering in a foreign language and gasping for breath as her hands rip into the expensive sheets and tears stream down her face. Lena had completely given up on trying to get her to sleep in her own bed at this point. She had learned of Kara's intense nightmares the second night that she had slept next to her; the heiress had woken up to the blonde crying and whimpering in her sleep, thrashing against the sheets and muttering sorrowfully in Kryptonian. Instead of trying to kick the girl out into her own bed, Lena had learned to just lay her weight down on top of the girl to keep her from thrashing around and whisper comforting words into her hair until the alien could breath normally again, calm down and fall back asleep.

It had been two weeks of waking up, dragging the alien to work with her in some brand new clothes that _actually_ fit her, and dodging as many questions as she could manage from Jess. Two weeks of teaching Kara to read (which she had picked up surprisingly quickly,) to write, and to speak English. Two weeks of watching trashy reality TV shows that Kara would repeat back phrases of and Lena would explain the meaning of to the best of her abilities. Two weeks of reading Kara children's picture books and having her repeat them back to her as clearly as she could manage until the girl could read a select few of them near fluently. 

Two weeks of learning how to best communicate with Kara while teaching her very important (and sometimes very awkward) things, like what toilets are for and how not to be terrified of them, how to open a door and turn on faucets without breaking off the handles, how to dress herself in an even semi-fashionable sense, how to use the stove and microwave (without starting fires, which had happened on one to many occasions,) how to make a few plain meals, the basics of how to work a phone (really just how to call Lena, even though they were virtually never apart) and the TV, and other basic, common knowledge that'd help blend Kara in with the human race. 

Two weeks of trying to help Kara regulate her powers (even though she had yet to fly, Lena wasn't even sure she actually could,) attempting to help her get a handle on her speed and slow it down to a much more normal human pace, regulate her strength so she could stop crumpling everything she touched in-between her fingertips, as well as stop leaving small bruises littered across Lena's pale skin and most importantly, control the fucking laser beams that'd pop out of her eyes every single time she'd get to startled or to scared. The latter being much more difficult to deal with then the rest, she had several melted appliances to prove it.

Two weeks of searching for any sort of lead on how to get into communication with Superman, especially since Kara was getting more and more restless as the days went on. From sketchy websites and email addresses that promised they could get in contact with the man of steel if offered the right amount of money (they couldn't, she learned rather quickly,) to much more reliable sources that worked with her to locate and communicate with the Kryptonian right up until the moment that her last name came into light and they completely ghosted on her without a word more.

Two weeks of building up her newly branded company and spending every spare moment she had with Kara– testing out the limits of how much Kara can eat (which is never ending, as far as Lena could tell,) of talking to the alien just for the sake of talking to her, knowing that Kara only knew maybe one out of every twenty words she said but saying them anyways because Kara would always give her this _look_ when she was talking to her, this look that read she was giving Lena every single ounce of her attention with every single fiber of her being.

Which was.. nice.

_I guess._

Two weeks of Kara following her around like a lost, lovesick puppy nearly every minute of the day and of asking every other hour about Kal-El and when she'd get to see him again. 

It was exhausting, like having a child or maybe a new born puppy– attention seeking and clingy, possibly destructive if left alone for too long.

But it was also probably, maybe, I guess, the best two weeks of her entire life.

Not that she'd like, ever admit that to anybody or anything. Not even to herself really, because if she thought about it too hard or for too long than it's really just kind of fucking depressing. 

But Lena had grown use to being alone her entire life. It wasn't anything new– even when she had her family, even when she had the love of her life, Jack and her best friend, Samantha. She loved them all deeply but something inside her always kept them at a distance, never to close for comfort. She'd grown used to the distance that always stood between her and everybody in her life, the seeming miles of emotional isolation that she had gained through one to many painful Luthor family upbringings and teachings.

She liked it that way though. She liked that people were never close enough to her to hurt her, to bring on more pain than she was already forced to juggle. She didn't need the human contact like everybody else did. It wasn't vital to her survival, she learned. She was fine, really. Doing without it. She was perfectly content staying isolated and senile with the rest of society despising her. 

But the problem is that Kara came around, only about two weeks ago and had gotten _much_ to close for comfort. She had gotten so close that Lena couldn't really remember what it felt like to not have a strong, firm but incredibly gentle body pressed up against hers every night. She couldn't really remember how she survived so long without talking to somebody– not business talk or small talk, or snide comments about her brother and her surname. But actual talk, about everything and nothing. About anything that came to her mind. She couldn't really remember what it was like to not smile and laugh until her mouth and ribs hurt when Kara would quote back sassy and peculiar comments made by one of the Kardashian sisters to her at the most random of times. 

It's only been two weeks but she couldn't really remember what it was like to _not_ have Kara in her life. 

So maybe (definitely) it was depressing. But by the way Kara smiled like she'd just won the lottery every single time she made Lena laugh– it was probably safe to assume that the other woman was plenty happy with the arrangement as well.

So Lena tried not to let herself dwell on it for to long. Tried not to dwell on all these unfamiliar and frankly unwelcome emotions. Tried not to think about what would happen when she actually got into contact with Superman or when Kara was stable enough to go out on her own in the new world.

No, she tried not to think about that and instead attempted to convince herself day in and day out that none of this was a big deal. It was only two weeks after all, two weeks was basically nothing and it's not like Lena was getting too attached to the alien or anything, because that'd just be disastrous, and irresponsible, and just not something that a Luthor is allowed to do.

So no, she wasn't getting attached.

She had just found a friend in Kara, that was all.

"I-If you kn-knew how I f-felt w-w-why w-wo-would you s-say that-t."

Lena is pulled abruptly out of her thoughts by Kara's thick accent parroting the TV screen her wide blue eyes were glued to. Kim Kardashian was on the screen with tears running down her face and Kara was repeating her words back like a broken record, to the best of her abilities at least. 

Lena couldn't help but crack a smile at the sight of if, releasing a small chuckle before reassuring Kara. "That's perfect, darling." 

Kara beamed at her brighter than the sun, already parting her lips and readying herself to repeat the words once more for further validation (much to Lena's amusement,) but she was abruptly cut off by pounding on the front door in the room over.

Lena couldn't help the prickle of anxiety that clawed against her skin as the pounding continued only seconds later when neither of the two girls made a move to answer it, just staring at each other in shock: Kara, because she had never heard a knock on the door before and was bewildered by the sudden sound. And Lena because nobody had knocked on her door since she had moved into this new house; the closest neighbour lived a mile out, they were far enough from the city that nobody ever came stumbling around on her private property that was half submerged into the forest, and no one but Jess and herself had the location of her new home– mostly due to security measures (assassination attempts and hate crimes were much harder to commit when you had no idea where the person lived) but also because Lena really had nobody in her life that would want to know where she lived and drop by her house. Especially unannounced.

Kara's eyes grew wide and alarmed as the banging continued, and it only took seconds more before she was jumping up and off the couch to go investigate the noise. That's when Lena got a hold of her shock and shot up from her seat, grabbing a hold of Kara's shoulders with wide, serious eyes and pushing the confused alien back down to the couch, "stay here, Kara. Don't move and don't talk. Okay?" 

Kara furrowed her brows and screwed up her face like she was trying very hard to listen intently to the woman before nodding her head and putting her hands up in the "stay" motion that Lena had taught her. The raven haired heiress chuckled lightly, nodding her head in agreement, copying the gesture, whispering a reminder for the alien to stay put and be quiet once more before heading towards the door with a heavy sigh. She soothed down her clothes and hair, making herself as composed and presentable as she could manage while being dressed up in yoga pants and a much-to-large, ripped up sweater that hung off one shoulder and covered the tips of her fingertips. A polar opposite to the regular pencil skirt and blouse combo that she wore like a second skin. 

She then threw on a polite, practiced smile before opening the door.

"Good morning Ms. Luthor, I'm Special Agent Danvers, FBI and this is my team—" the brunette holding out her badge in her right hand uses her left to gesture to the group of three or four men and a canine standing behind her on Lena's terrace. She begins talking before Lena even has a chance to open up her mouth for a greeting, seemingly already knowing who Lena was and cutting right to the chase.

The agent opens her mouth to continue but Lena's already cutting her off, feeling the blood in her veins run cold and goosebumps rise up her back as she stares at the group of broody faced agents standing in front of her, "Is this regarding Lex? Did he escape? Because I already told the other agents everything I know, I swear. I don't understand why you keep showing up to investiga—" 

She's cut off by the stern but polite voice of Danvers, cold but not quite hateful. "No, this has nothing to do with Lex Luthor ma'am. He's perfectly secure at maximum security prison as we speak." She tells Lena, who can't help but feel a small wave of relief wash over her at the assurance. Though it does nothing to get rid of that ice cold feeling prickling at her skin,

"Then why are you here?" She asked, standing up straighter and more assured now that she knew Lex was still safely kept away from her, dutifully serving his 15 consecutive life sentences, and they weren't investigating her due to her close connection with the known terrorist.

"Well ma'am, we have strong reason to believe that an alien spacecraft landed near your house just short of two weeks ago. We have specialist's that saw the ship coming down from the atmosphere who knew what it was immediately, and while it did take us a while to track down the exact location of the pod, we were led to your property almost a mile out west of this house. Which is yours, correct?" The agent spoke in a polite tone, folding up her badge and placing it back in pocket while holding direct eye contact with Lena.

Lena, for her part, could barely hear the agent droning on about the spaceship. All her brain had registered was the first sentence of her spew and the word "spacecraft" before it was off running a mile per minute. She felt blistering hot panic take over her body, rushing from her head to her toes as she thought of the alien in the next room and the ruined spacecraft that she had had Kara drag over to her large twelve car garage, the numerous broken apart pieces hidden under large tarps. She thought of the huge cavern in her backyard that she was having gardeners come over to fill in the next few days and all the laws she knew of that regarded harboring an immigrant alien without the US governments knowledge or understanding– safe to say she couldn't think of a lot as the circumstance was almost unheard of. 

She thought of Kara. Of Kara who could only speak a few sentences of English and naturally trusted every single person that she met wholeheartedly. Of how comfortable Lena had gotten always having Kara around, loving and trusting her without doubt while the rest of the world wouldn't touch her with a ten foot pole. Of Kara's undeniable power, speed, and strength, of all the potential things that a corrupted government could use such a naive alien for. They hadn't done it with Superman, but he was a full grown, unstoppable adult when the government had become aware of his earth ending powers. Who's to say they wouldn't take advantage of such a sculptable and gullible mind like Kara's and use her God-like powers for something dangerous, like war or world domination. Or do experiments on her to see if they could make more of her, or become more like her. 

Who's to say they wouldn't take Kara away from Lena and never let the Luthor girl see her again– after all, everybody hated the Luthor name just as much as they hated the Bin Laden name. And if they found out about Kara, about how dangerous and reckless she was and her child-like trust, there would be no stopping them from tearing her away from Lena. 

But the agent was now staring at Lena expectantly, cold faced and forced smile, her calculating brown eyes tracking the raven haired woman's every movement like she might pull out a weapon at any moment and go guns-a-blazing like her brother would.

So Lena reminded her quickly crumbling composure and anxiety ridden brain of all the lessons her mother and father had taught her: Luthor's don't cry, Luthor's don't beg, Luthor's don't get scared or back down, and most importantly of all, Luthor's don't show weakness. 

So she pulled herself up even straighter, silently wishing that she had her Louis Vuitton stiletto's and a tight, professional dress that she always wore like armor to protect her against the anxiety and panic she felt creeping into her blood stream at the thought of never seeing Kara again. She sucked her face devoid of any emotion, put on a familiar blank and unaffected mask quicker than a flash of lighting, and cleared her throat to rid herself of the anxiety filling up her lungs like water in a pool. 

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you sure you got the right location?" She said, her voice much colder and resigned than it had been moments before. The affect was immediate however– Agent Danvers faux politeness and tight lipped smile fell quicker than the human eye could see, her posture curling up to match Lena's broadened shoulders (making it clear that she was much taller than barefoot Lena, even without the help of the boots on her feet) and her muscles stiffening in defense.

"We're positive actually." The agent said through gritted teeth, a last futile attempt at playing nice with the resigned woman before her. 

"Well then your machine or people must've made a mistake, because nothing like that happened on my property. Now have a good day." Lena said, her tone forced politeness as well as she smiled thinly before going to shut the door on the stern faces staring near threateningly at her. It would've been terrifying - having a group of professionally trained agents and a obedient canine staring at her like they may just hurt her if she even blinks in the wrong way - if Lena hadn't grown so used to the dangerous stares of everybody around her that silently threatened to jump her at a moment's notice if she didn't cooperate or play nice.

She was already feeling her anxiety rush away as the door came swinging shut, but it was abruptly cut off by a large boot-clad foot shoving its way in-between the wooden door and doorframe, forcing it to come flinging back open with Lena's pale hand clenched tightly around the handle.

"Excuse me, but our people and our machines don't _make mistakes._ We are a hundred percent positive that this is where the spacecraft landed, and if you are so sure that it didn't, then why don't you try to explain the crater in your backyard?" The agent's politeness and niceties were long gone and instead replaced by a threatening and stern tone, her brown eyes glaring holes into the woman across from her.

Lena raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow and cocked out her hip, shifting her weight to one side and folding her arms out in front of her defensively, 

"Again, I have no idea what you're talking about, sorry. Where is this crater that you keep speaking of?" Lena asked with a confused tone, her eyebrows furrowing and her face scrunching up slightly.

"Like I said previously, it's about a mile or so out behind your house, near the forest. It looks like something big and heavy hit the grass, indenting it and destroying all the soil around it." The brunette told her matter-of-factly, her head tilting to the side and an almost amused expression on her face as she waited for Lena's explanation.

The raven haired girl played up her part, leaving the crease between her eyebrows and shaking her head from side to side, "Firstly, this is private property and you're actually not allowed to go trampling around my backyard, as I'm sure you're already aware Agent Danvers. But I'll let that go since I truly don't have anything to hide–" She cut herself off to smile innocently at the stern faced agents, "And secondly, like I've said several times already, I'm sorry but I _just can't help you._ I wasn't aware that there was a crater in my backyard since I don't really make it a habit of mine to walk a mile out behind my house and search for strange signs of alien life. As you may know, I now run one of the largest multi-billionaire companies in the world and don't really have a lot of time for leisure walks." 

The agent's amused face dropped like a rock at Lena's nonchalant words and innocent smile, her jaw clenching and her fists flexing against the slick black material of her bodysuit (which, what kind of FBI agent wore something like that?) She took a second to breath in and out, collecting her bearings before continuing forward like somebody had just flicked a light switch inside of her,

"Hmm, so this is a pretty big house you just bought. You live here alone?" The agent asked, stepping back slightly so her eyes can trail up and down the Victorian mansion Lena was standing in. 

Lena felt uneasy at the quick change of subject, her emerald eyes flickering up and down the calm facade the brunette was putting on as she examined the heiress's luxury with observing eyes, but she didn't let it show and instead titled her head to the right in interest, letting her hand come off the knob of the door and instead trail up the expensive wood, holding it tightly between her fingers. 

"Yes, I live all alone." She answered shortly with a polite smile answering the brunette's raised eyebrow,

"Yeah, that's what I was expecting." She mumbled snidely under her breath, her eyes flickering down breifly to meet Lena's own expectantly like she was waiting for some sort of retaliation to the loaded remark. But Lena didn't touch on it, didn't even spare the brunette a blink or a twitch. People did that a lot nowadays– would throw rude remark after rude remark like they were testing just how far they could push the youngest Luthor before she snapped, just so they could claim that she was insane and hysterical just like her brother. But Lena was far to used to people trying to get a rise out of her and that petty comment didn't even hold a candle to the nastiest one that had been thrown at her way this week.

"So nobody else lives with you, at all?" The girl repeated, raising her voice slightly and stepping closer to the house like she was preparing to walk in, clearly upset that Lena didn't rise to the bate.

"No, nobody else." Lena responded curtly.

"So you wouldn't mind if we came in and had a look around then, would you?" The agent asked, already stepping forward like she was about to push past Lena. But the girl shot out her arm and grabbed a hold of the door frame with her other arm before the other woman could manage to do so, stopping her abruptly and standing up straighter under the agent's questioning and just short of furious gaze as her head snapped over to look at Lena with a raise of her eyebrows.

"No, I rather you don't actually. Nothing personal really, just haven't had great experiences with law enforcement in the past. Now I haven't done anything wrong, so why don't you just leave?" Lena asked with a calm but stern tone, rivaling the agent's dangerous glare with one of her own. 

"Well if you have nothing to hide, as you so kindly put it, than why don't you let us in and have a lo-" The agent's snarl was cut off by the sound of footsteps, almost skipping across hardwoods floors before stopping abruptly behind Lena. 

In the next second, four things happened in perfect sync with one another: Lena felt a familar toned body lean up against her back gently, the brunette agents previously enraged eyes lit up like a childs on Christmas morning, the canine which had been sitting unwaveringly before jumped up and started barking loudly and repeatedly, and Lena's arm slipped from the doorframe to instead come up and pinch at the bridge of her nose as she shook her head and cursed under her breath.

"Hello, I'm Kara. What's your name?" The blonde standing so closely behind Lena that their body's didn't have an inch of space between them, asked with a voice of bursting excitement and impatience. Lena could practically hear the smile on her tone as she stared over Lena's head at the grinning agent– though this smile was much less fake than the one she had been giving Lena since the moment she had opened the door.

"I'm Alex Danvers, it's very nice to meet you Kara." The agent, who Lena now knew was named Alex, smiled brightly at Kara and pushed her hand out to shake the blondes. Lena pushed her back against Kara's front to try and deter the excited alien, silently telling her not to shake the girls hand, but of course the signal flew right over the girls head as she reached her hand out quickly around Lena's body, so she was almost wrapped around the nervous heiress, and shook the agents hand with fever.

"Woah, that's a strong grip you got there, Kara." Alex observed as they shook hands, a delighted look on her face as she smiled at the girl over Lena's head. Lena didn't need to see Kara's face to know that she didn't quite understand the words, so she just went with what Lena had taught her and said a polite, "Thank you!" 

Alex then turned her gaze to Lena, the happy and nice demeanor she had been giving Kara dropping so quickly that Lena was impressed she didn't give herself whiplash, "What was it that you said about living alone?" She asked with a smug glare.

Lena sighed before turning around to face Kara, who was vibrating with excitement at seeing more people that she got to meet and interact with. Their bodies still didn't have an inch of space between them and as soon as Kara felt the shorter girl move against her she dropped her gaze to Lena's stern one staring unhappily up at her, "Kara, what did I say about talking to people when I directly tell you not to and to stay put?"

Kara's happy smile dropped in a split second and was replaced by a small, guilt ridden one while she stared down at Lena with a face equivalent to a kicked puppy, "Not to?" She asked in her small, heavily accented voice.

Lena gave her a small smile, though kept the disappointed look in her eyes to let Kara know she needed to listen to her. She placed her hand gently on Kara's bicep which was left exposed in a soft, baby blue tank top and gave it a small squeeze before nudging her, "Exactly Kara, now why don't you go back inside and let me deal with these people, okay?"

Kara's mouth gaped open and she pressed even closer to Lena, if that was even possible, and caused the raven haired girl to lean back slightly so Kara could invade her space further, "But! New f-friend a-a-and p-puppy–"

Lena cut the girl off abruptly, moving her hand to Kara's chest and using it to push her back slightly, "Darling _please,_ I promise if you go back to the living room right now I'll order you some pizza and we can watch more Keeping Up With The Kardashians after I'm done, okay?" The heiress let her voice soften as she nearly begged the girl, pushing on her unwavering chest with an urgent look gleaming in her emerald orbs– only allowing the emotion to shine through since she had her back turned to the agent's and knew they couldn't see it.

Kara frowned slightly at the urgency, her blue eyes snapping between the stern faced agents behind (Alex who was still smiling warmly at her, before switching down to the almost scared gaze in Lena's eyes,) "O-Okay." She decided unsurely, backing up into the house, ignoring Alex's urgent "wait!" when Lena continued to give her that serious face. 

When Kara was safely out of sight from the door, where she waited leaning up against the entryway to the living room a few feet from Lena, her arms crossed and an unsure feeling creeping up on her scrunched up face while she stared closely at the nervous heiress. Lena span on the heels of her feet to face the angry agent glaring her down with furrowed eyebrows and a deep frown, 

"That was just my friend, Kara. She doesn't live here, we're just hanging out." Lena said as convincingly as she could manage when all she could really feel were the shock waves of panic running up and down her body, which only intensified when the brunette gave her a dead pan, unconvinced look.

The agent pointed down to the dog which one of the blonde agents behind her was tugging back at the leash of until it halted it's insistent barking and sat back down obediently, "This canine was trained to alert us of any aliens presence." 

Lena's gaze dropped down to the German Shepherd sat besides the brunette before switching back up to the girl, she felt another rush of anxiety wrack her body but refused to show it. Instead she just raised her eyebrow at the agent with an unimpressed look, "Okay, an alien friend. What does it matter? Hanging out with an alien isn't a crime now, is it?" Lena asked snarkily. 

"It is when that _friend_ is an illegal immigrant that you've been harboring." Alex shot back just as quickly, raising her eyebrow back at the heiress.

Lena's lips pursed as she bit the insides of her cheeks and clenched her jaw, "Once again, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking abou—"

She was abruptly cut off by the agent's impatient tone and furious look, "Oh cut the shit, Luthor. We've seen the spacecraft you hid in your garage, which is _Kryptonian_ if the markings are anything to go off of, and we know that Kara is the alien that crash landed in that said spacecraft." 

Lena's jaw dropped so far she's surprised it didn't collide with the floor, her mind going blank and her previously sweltering hot blood running ice cold, "Excuse me?! You went into my _garage?_ Where is your fucking search warrant? And when the hell did the FBI start investigating aliens for no reason other than they are _aliens?"_

Alex ignored all of Lena's questions with a threatening glare set in her eyes, she overpowered Lena easily and pushed past her and into the mansion, making the door in her hold swing open and her feet stumble back at the force. She would've fallen on her ass if it weren't for Kara speeding over to catch her and keep her upright, her hands nervous and rigid against Lena's waist as she stared at the group of people now a couple feet into their house and glaring at Lena.

"This is against my fourth amendment, you can't just—" Lena nearly yelled at the agents who were now in her house, the ones behind Alex branching out to search the house most likely while the brunette stayed put in front of Lena.

"Listen, just give us the alien and this will all go over a lot smoother Luthor." Alex interrupted her, an almost bored tone taking over her voice at Lena's indigent protest. 

Lena nearly winced at the use of her last name but caught herself before her own tone could take on more hysteria– she _was_ a Luthor after all, and they never let anybody see it when they found a weak spot. 

"Firstly, she has a _name_ and it's Kara. Secondly, she's not _mine_ to give away, she's not anybody's but her own. She's her own living, breathing person." Lena snapped at the girl, straightening herself up so that Kara didn't have to carry her weight for her but allowing the blondes hands to stay glued to her hips.

"She may have a name and she may be living, but she _does_ belong to someone. And that someone is the US government." Alex stated like it was a well known fact.

Lena stared at her in bewilderment and anger– how dare she claim something so discriminatory, so inhumane. Kara was a person, just like everybody else in the room: she had feelings, emotions and opinions, she ate and she slept, she talked and she laughed. She was just as human as the rest of them, albeit with a little more power and strength, but that didn't mean she didn't deserve to be treated like any of the rest of them. She wasn't an animal or an object, she didn't belong to anybody and she couldn't just be picked up and taken away like some kind of intimate toy.

"I already told you, she doesn't belong to _anybody._ I don't give a fuck about what your government says, she's not going anywhere with you." Lena growled at the girl, her body stiffening under the weight of Alex's rage filled glare and Kara's restricting hands holding her in place like she knew Lena wanted to stalk closer to the taller brunette and assert her dominance.

"That's not up to you, Luthor." The brunette spit out her last name like it was vile in her throat, taking a step closer with her pearly white teeth clenched tightly together.

People did that so often now, saying her name like it was the worst of curse words, and at this point Lena had grown so used to the rage and hatred that she sometimes forgot it wasn't an insult but rather a regular surname.

"She's not an object, you know? She's not some prize to be won or some weapon to procure. She doesn't belong to the government anymore than you or I do. You can't take her because she's not yours to take." Lena continued on like she couldn't hear the rage seeping through every word that Alex spoke, straightening out her posture arrogantly and using the most proper and composed voice that she could manage– though that only served to make the agent angrier it seemed.

"Actually she is, according to the 1906 Antiquities Act any debris or meteorites that fall on federal land or property automatically belongs to the US government. Therefore, so does she. Which means that you, Ms. Luthor, are actively breaking the law by harboring her in your household and resisting her securance—" Alex paused to look her up and down judgementally, "though I suppose that commiting federal crimes isn't anything new to you." 

Lena almost wants to laugh at that one. And she probably would've if the rage driving her every nerve ending wasn't so paralyzing.

"I apologise, are you deaf, or just blind? Does Kara look like space debris to you? Or a meteorite for that matter? Your laws don't apply to her Agent Danvers, she's a person not a broken satellite or atmospheric rock. _You.can't.have.her."_ Lena talked to her in the same tone that she used when she had to dumb down her decisions or work to privelaged old white men in board meetings that insisted on questioning her every movement as though they could do a better job than her.

"No, she doesn't. But since the United States has yet to pass a bill regarding alien life forms, they will continue to fall under this act. Which means that Kara is ours not yours, she _comes with us."_ Alex all but growled at her.

"I'm sorry, did I stutter before? I said, you can't _fucking have her."_ Lena snarled back with just as much trepidation in her tone, though somehow managing to keep that prim and proper voice she always had - even in her anger - like every single word she spat out costed a thousand dollars. Her body attempted to tug forward into Alex's orbit but was not able to move under Kara's strong hold on her hips, keeping her silently in place while she watched the scene play out in front of her with furrowed eyebrows. Her innocent blue eyes flickered back and forth between the two powerful women like she was watching a game of tennis, her confusion only furthering when she heard her name uttered every other sentence. 

Kara couldn't make out what the two women were talking about. She had seen her fair share of verbal fights while watching the reality TV shows that Lena had introduced her to - actually it was pretty much the only thing she had witnessed while observing them - so she knew now what it looked like when two humans were about to face down with one another. And by the way Alex's shoulders squared off, her posture growing higher and her tone flying deeper while her right hand rested almost threateningly on the sleek black metal object strapped to her hip, her other hand splayed out on her waist– and by the way Lena's usually smiling face fell into a thinly veiled panic, covered up poorly by a worn out mask made up of anger and arrogance, her defined jaw clenched and her knuckles turning white as her fingernails dug deeply into the ivory skin of her crossed arms– she could tell immediately that this was in fact another verbal fight that humans were so fond of having.

She could only figure out a handful of words and phrases every few sentences that meant nearly nothing when they were put together. She didn't know what they were arguing about but she could tell by Lena's frigid form and thinly veiled, anxiety induced eyes that it wasn't anything she was happy with. She didn't know how she could help Lena when she couldn't even understand the fight, so she just attempted to listen and stay alert instead, keeping her highly sensitive ears attuned to the heated talk before her and the shuffling of the broody faced people surrounding them. She kept her hands lightly on Lena's fragile hips just in case the vehement woman was approached by any sudden or dangerous movements; she really didn't like the glares or sharp tones being shot down at the raven haired woman in her grip. 

The two women went on snapping at each other back and forth for a few minutes, mostly consisting of Alex spewing threats and thinly veiled insults at the youngest Luthor while Lena tried to keep her dread hidden under layers of anger and righteousness, repeating the phrase, "you can't have her," more times than she'd care to admit.

When Alex grew tired of the stubborn woman and her talent for staying composed and proper even as she filled with alarm and desperation at the mere thought of the alien being taken away from her– she turned to face Kara instead, composing herself and reigning in her trepidation against the Luthor as to not scare the naive girl.

She knew that Lena was right in atleast one way– if the pod with the House of El crest carved into it that they had found when they raided Lena's garage was any indication, then Kara was infact the last remaining daughter of Krypton. Which meaned she held just as much power, if not more, than Superman, the strongest man to ever walk planet Earth. That meant that there was no forcing Kara to do anything or go anywhere that she didn't want to, as far as Alex's knowledge went. So she had to make her _want_ to get away from the Luthor and come with her, which she figured wouldn't be too difficult if the youngest Luthor held even a smidge of resemblance to her older brother.

"Kara—" she called the girls name so abruptly that the blondes gaze wavered hesitantly as it landed on her, her eyebrows furrowed and her head tilted, "you want to meet Superman, don't you?"

She could immediately tell that she had said the exact right thing by the way Kara's hesitancy dropped like a rock off her face, being marvelously replaced by an astonished look and earnest nod. Though it had quite the opposite effect on Lena and Alex couldn't help but feeling smug at the sudden change– her previously composed expression was morphed into one of utter panic. It wasn't a countenance that Alex was aware the Luthor could hold, as she was always so cool and collected, a professional and undeterred aroma wrapping around her every word and movement. 

She had to admit that the look of absolute alarm looked good on the Luthor's face. 

She didn't even try to hid her accomplished smile.

"Kal-El?" The blonde asked in a foreign accent, her eyes wide and unblinking.

"Yeah, Kal-El. If you come with me–" she used hand gestures to get her point across, "then I can get him for you. We're friends." Alex told the girl in a friendly and gentle tone.

"Y-you're Kal-El fr-friend?" She asked curiously, her grip loosing on Lena's hips as she looked on in amazement and trust.

"Yep, I'm his friend. And I can lead you to him, if you come with me." Alex told her, pointing out the still open door with a cock of her head before holding out her hand to Kara, a welcoming smile stretching across her face. 

"Kara, no. Don't go with her." Lena all but begged the blonde when she let her hands fall from the heiress's hips, stepping out from behind her and taking a hold of Alex's hands with a small smile of her own. Alex grinned so wide at the soft hand in her own that it hurt her cheeks. 

Lena grabbed onto Kara's bicep tightly, her grip desperate enough to stop Kara in her tracks before she could fully step out the door with Alex who was muttering on about Kal-El (the alien could only make out bits about what she was saying, but she heard her cousins name and followed dutifully, like her mother would have wanted.). But Lena's voice and grip was urgent and Kara couldn't help but stop to look back at the girl to see what the problem was.

"Kara don't go with her, you can't trust her. You don't _know_ her." Lena told the girl in a crucial tone, her fingers digging into the rock hard arm in her grip.

Lena was filled head to toe with waves of anxiety racking fully throughout her body; it wasn't just that she couldn't quite imagine what her life would be like without ever seeing Kara again, it was also mostly just panic born out of worry for the girl and her safety. They didn't know these people, they clearly weren't FBI if their getup's, immune lack of protocol and law-abiding habits were any sign. They could be anybody, confiscating a very trusting and very gullible Kara who had all the power of a God. They could use her as a weapon, manipulate her mind to make her think what they wanted her to think. She was impressionable right now, Lena hasn't had the time to toughen her up to the ways of the world in their limited time together and now she could be in eminent danger and Lena couldn't seem to do anything about it.

Lena can't think of a single time that she's felt more anxiety and worry before. 

"B-But, Alex is Kal-El friend, Lena." Kara told her with a oblivious smile, her tone and nod of her head meant to reassure Lena before she was heading out the door with Alex following the way to the big black van they had parked outside.

Lena felt nausea run through her veins at the sight and she was just about yelling out after Kara before she could even think about it, stumbling after her quickly before being caught in a vice grip by one of the other agents. 

He had dirty blonde hair mopped across his tan forehead and hard blue eyes that held nothing but hostility in them as he glared down at Lena. He had her arms trapped behind her back, his toned body pressed up against her side firmly. He was strong, strong enough that Lena couldn't wiggle out of his firm grip, but that doesn't mean that she didn't try– she tugged against the restrains of his hands, calling after Kara who hadn't yet disappeared out of her sight and was still on the terrace with Alex coaxing her away. 

However the blonde man quickly grew impatient with her struggling and used even more strength to bend her arms behind her back until it was at an unnatural angle, his hands tight enough that Lena was sure they'd leave bruises in his wake and his short nails pressed so firmly into her ivory skin that she could feel the flesh tearing under the pressure. 

"Stop fucking moving, you Luthor cunt." He spat down at her before tightening his hold further and twisting her arms back more.

Lena couldn't help the pained yelp and whimper that fell from her lips while he mumbled insults to her, cutting off her call for Kara as he bent her limbs painfully and bruised her soft skin.

Lena didn't even have time to think about her predicament and the angry words he was throwing at her (mostly aimed at her surname) while she was distracted by the blinding pain flashing white behind her eyelids. It was all abruptly cut short by a breeze running past Lena, and the arms that had previously been holding her tight being released very suddenly.

Her eyes flickered open just in time to see Kara, her blue eyes vibrant and angry in a way that Lena had never been witness to before, grabbing the boys hand and yanking him away from Lena, his shoulder making a disjointing popping noise that caused him to whimper painfully before cutting himself off abruptly with a blood curdling scream, the sound of several bones being crushed accompanying the noise.

Lena knew that Kara was strong of course– atleast as strong as Superman who could knock down buildings, toss cars, and pick up airplanes like they were a normal workout regimen. She knew, reasonably from all the small bruises that she had acquired through the first week or so that Kara was here, that Kara controlled her strength as best as she could with Lena. She knew that when Kara touched her and when Kara held her, she did so as if she was holding precious China glassware that was worth a few millions dollars. 

She knew that, reasonably. But that didn't mean it didn't still fill her with shock as she watched Kara handle the blonde agent like he was nothing more than an annoying rag doll.

Lena watched on in absolute horror and amazement as Kara's usually gentle hand curled around the blondes boys, making his chubby fingers twist and bend under her grip while seemingly dozens of bones crunched and snapped under the slight pressure she was using on it. 

"Don't t-to-touch Lena." The girl got out with only a slight stumble over the newly familiar English, her frown deeper than Lena had ever seen and her normally warm blue eyes set ablaze.

The blonde boy could only gurgle in agreement, his wide eyes glued to the twisted remains of his hand in shock. But that seemed to be the only confirmation that Kara needed before she nodded and let the boys mangled hand go, not paying him any mind while he whimpered loudly and repeatedly in pain, his body shaking with shock as he stumbled into one of the other, equally as shell shocked agents, who dragged him out of the house with one last horrified glance back at the Kryptonian. 

Kara didn't even spare them a glance, instead opting to invade Lena's personal space and gently - so gently like Lena was an ancient artifact made out of paper thin glass - grabbed Lena's arms and brought them up to examine them with her worried eyes. Reasonably, Lena knew that she should've atleast flinched at the sudden intrusion after such a terrifying display of strength and carelessness– but she didn't, didn't even blink when the blonde brushed her fingers feather light over the forming bruises and slivered cuts on her pale skin.

She really tried not to think about what that might mean.

"You O-Okay?" Kara asked quietly, looking up at Lena with wide eyes as her fingers gently traced circles over the quickly darkening skin. 

The eye contact that they held in that moment felt like everything to Lena; felt like the world slowing to a stop around her, time freezing in place and leaving her in this one moment. Felt like a million emotions that she had never felt before, that she could never even find names for, flooding through her bloodstream and washing over her every nerve ending. She felt everything she didn't even know she was capable of feeling when Kara looked at her like that, numbing her brain and enabling her tongue useless. Her ocean blue eyes - filled with worry and possessiveness, sparkling under the natural sunlight streaming in through the windows and reflecting off her glassy irises - were something that Lena could happily drown herself in and never again come out of.

When she noticed from Kara's furrowed eyebrows that she hadn't yet answered the simple question, she couldn't help the instinctive reassuring smile that stretched across her lips while she reached out and cupped Kara's cheek gently with one hand, "I'm fine, _thank you_ Kara." She whispered sincerely, her gaze intense as it burrowed into Kara's own.

Kara was about to open her mouth to answer when their moment was cut off by an abrupt voice, "Kara!" Alex called, stealing both girls attention away from each other.

"You want to see Kal-El, remember?" Alex asked gently, though her gaze and tone was much more cautious than it was before and this time she didn't reach out to make physical contact with the alien. 

Kara's gaze flickered between Lena's wide eyes staring up at her and Alex's tentative gaze a few times before settling on the brunette, she nodded her head and interlaced her fingers gently with Lena's before starting towards the door. Alex was quick to cut her off though, grabbing her strong bicep with one hand and pushing Lena back gently with the other until their locked hands broke contact. Before she seemed to remember herself and the agent that they could still hear wailing from the car, and flew her hands off both woman faster than a blink of an eye.

"Lena can't come, Kara. But Kal-El really wants to meet you." She told the girl with a shake of her head, grabbing Kara's arm and attempting to pull her out of the house with her. 

Kara didn't budge or move an inch, not fully understanding the last of Alex's sentence but being convinced by her nephews name once more, "Kal-El?" She asked for confirmation.

Alex nodded and tugged on her arm again, moving Kara a step forward while Lena felt her body begin to vibrate with anxiety once more, "Yes Kara, Kal-El. But Lena can't come." She empathised her point with a sharp look to the Luthor before attempting to walk off with Kara in tow.

But Kara stopped abruptly when they got a foot outside of the house, her eyebrows furrowing and the strength of her sudden stop causing Alex to stumble back slightly with a heavy sigh passing her lips. 

Kara pulled away, much to Alex's annoyance, before turning back and walking back into the house with purpose. She stopped right in front of Lena, who stared up at her with wide, clear green eyes, before giving the young Luthor a toothy smile and kneeling down abruptly, picking Lena up like she weighed nothing more than a feather and tossing her gently over her shoulder in a fire fighter style. Lena yelped in surprise as her torso and face hit Kara's back and her legs wiggled uselessly out in front of the blonde, giving out a small squeaky protest of, "Kara!" Which the blonde chose to ignore smugly. 

She then walked back over to Alex, who was staring at her with a deeply unimpressed stare and an apprehensive complexion, "Kal-El?" She asked simply with a wide, blinding smile while she walked out of the house and shut the door behind her.

Both girls ignored Lena's whining as they made prolonged eye contact, after a while of staring deeply into Kara's bubbly blue eyes Alex let out a deep, frustrated sigh and spared Lena's kicking legs and flushed face a glance, "you're not gonna leave without her, are you?"

She wasn't sure if Kara really understood what she'd asked but the blonde did give her a long shake of her head, her hands secure around Lena's bottom and waist so she wouldn't fall and a vibrant smile pulling against her tan cheeks while she listened halfheartedly to Lena as the heiress spewed out futile threats to the alien. It all just made Alex sigh even harder before shaking her head and tuning on her heels, stomping over to the van where she could still hear Agent Henderson's cries of agony, "J'onn is going to kill me." She sighed under her breath.


	6. VI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her father's words made even less sense then than they did before, because if this is what all humans looked like– with wide, jade coloured eyes and pale skin the colour of moonlight– then Kara never really wanted to look at anything else ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter took so fucking long to get out ya'll, I rewrote it three times before giving up and deciding to post this version. It's probably my least favorite chapter I've written so far but I accepted that this was the best it was going to get.
> 
> I thought y'all might enjoy a chapter from Kara's point of view for once, and I promise that Lena is much stronger and meaner than she seems in the previous chapter and this one, as well. Just give her some time.
> 
> I'm sorry I haven't gotten around to answering comments yet, I've been really really busy. But I do read every single one that you guys post and I appreciate them more than you know.
> 
> Please stay safe at BLM protests and remember to wear masks (and preferably goggles) when you're at them. Love you guys! <3

Kara was learning a lot of things from her time on this Earth.

Before her father had sent her away from Krypton - the crimson sky's crying tears of emerald green that shook the planet and erupted the world around her in chaos as they dropped to the ground - he told her that on Earth she would be a God amongst the humans, somebody to rule and reign the ruins of their corrupted world. He told her that the people there would worship her, would fear her and would idolize her. He told her that she and Kal-El would guide their world of disarray into a teleological universe, one of order and intellect. Just like Krypton.

She barely paid any attention to his words, her ears vibrating with the sound of her mother weeping besides her, her soft hands clawing at the tear stained flesh of her cheeks and fisting into the material of her dress, her desperate touch and trembling voice acting as though she'd never get to hold or speak to Kara ever again. She was distracted by the sight of the ground crumbling beneath her feet and the screams of agony surrounding her as everybody that she had ever known and everybody that she had ever loved, met their demise under the poisonous fog of green enveloping every inch of Krypton.

She didn't know exactly what he had meant at the time, his urgent whispers were a distant buzzing sound in the back of her mind as she was strapped down into the pod, the restraints heavy against her chest and her mother kissing her forehead, telling her a reverent "I love you" as though it was the last thing she'd ever get to say. She hadn't known why she would be any different from the humans she would be surrounded by or how she was suppose to take over their failed reality and turn it into one of peace and prosperity instead. But she didn't have the time to ask– the screams of terror and the sound of buildings crashing to the ground was enough of a reminder of their limited time together, and she didn't feel like discussing the human race in her last moments with her family.

She didn't know why she was supposed to be a God or why he described humans as a failed lifeform, crippled by their chronic arrogance and egos. She didn't understand how she was suppose to lead such an ugly people into a world of beauty or why anybody would listen to her in the first place, an orphaned daughter of a ruined world. But she figured it'd all make more sense when she landed on Earth, when she got to see the humans hideous tendencies and behavior for herself.

It didn't, though.

It didn't make any more sense decades later when she finally landed on Earth, when she woke up from what felt like a lifetime long nightmare, her mind suspended in the vision of her world exploding and erupting into a cloud of emerald green right in front of her eyes, over and over again, on repeat.

It didn't make any more sense because the first thing that she laid her eyes on when she was forced awake by the all ecompassing sound of heavy breathing and a beautiful voice mumbling underneath it's breath, by the noise of creatures chirping and water running somewhere nearby, when she was able to tear the pods sheilding off like it weighed nothing and propel herself out of the spacecraft at lighting speed– the first thing she laid her eyes on was even more green. 

This green, however, wasn't deadly or blistering like the poison that had fallen to her planet. No, it was more of a faded, cloudy jade colour and it held more emotional depth than Kara had ever seen a colour hold. It had taken her a second to connect that pool of colour to the eyes that they were a part of, but when she finally did she couldn't help but feel like she was back in space for a few moments - suspended in darkness and unable to take a deep breath - though this time it was because of the mere beauty of the woman standing in front of her.

Her father's words made even less sense then than they did before, because if this is what all humans looked like– with wide, jade coloured eyes and pale skin the colour of moonlight– then Kara never really wanted to look at anything else ever again. 

And then when she was able to pry her eyes away from the human and take the time to look around at the new universe surrounding her, she learned that her father had been incorrect about atleast one more thing– this world wasn't in ruins, it was instead structured in detail and beauty, colourful and breathtaking, and humans weren't enveloped in ugliness on the outside either, nor on the inside as she'd later learn when the gorgeous human took care of her as though they had known each other for years instead of minutes.

As she spent more time on Earth after that, she learned more things that proved her father's words wrong– the humans weren't egotistical or arrogant, they weren't selfish or chaotic, the one's that Kara had encountered were rather nice actually. And _her_ human - Lena, she had learned to call her during their first night together - continued to take care of her, to feed her delicious foods and comfort her when she had nightmares about Krypton, to talk to her when her mind wandered too far and to teach her the ways of the planet she had landed on.

Humans were generally nice to her, would smile at her and would talk to her in high octaves that she couldn't quite understand but figured were pleasant anyways. And they weren't bad looking either, not a lot different from Kryptonians, really. They dressed rather strangely and they all acted a lot more pleasant than their eyes gave way to them actually being, but they weren't unbearable by any means and Kara actually found herself being enthralled by the way that they moved and the way that they talked. She liked to observe their movements, the way their bodies tensed and their muscles froze as though they were gearing up to run away whenever they were uncomfortable (though they never actually did end up running,) and the way that their eyes would automatically scrutinize every single person that approached them, looking them up and down as though they were checking for signs of danger or attraction before landing back on their eyes with faux calmness. She wondered if this was some sort of ritual of survival for the humans, if they could see danger just by the way another person moved and reacted to them.

She enjoyed watching their body language and the way it displayed their emotions without her having to even understand their language; the way they would fidget with their clothes and twist their fingers when they were nervous, the way their eyes lit up like the sun and their bodies squirmed with poorly contained energy whenever they were excited, the way they straightened up their backs and puffed out their chests when they felt intimidated, and the way they bit their lips and ran their dilated eyes over one another when they were attracted to each other. Humans were very expressive creatures she learned, even without their words, they found other ways to communicate their emotions to each other in a way that Kryptonians never did.

She liked that about them. She liked that they were so emotional and easily read. It was a point in evolution, you could tell, that humans were descendants of the animals that still roamed the Earth around them. They had similar tendencies to their ancestors, still had mating rituals and silent communications that helped them survive and thrive in their environment. She likes this because Kryptonians were much farther along in their evolution than humans are, they had learned ways to conceal their emotions as it would often be used as a sign of weakness that could be manipulated, and they learned more convenient and calculated ways to reproduce with one another than the mating rituals they used on Earth. 

And she learned a lot more than just that during her short time on Earth: she learned that her father had been right after all, and she and Kal-El were sort of God's amongst the humans. She learned that their sun was yellow instead of red, and underneath it's watchful beams she was strong enough to move buildings and fast enough to outrun lighting. She learned that the world was loud enough to make her ears bleed and she was able to see every single thing within miles of her, but she also learned that if she focused on Lena's eyes and the sound of her voice, then she was able to block out the rest of the world from driving her brain into overstimulation. She learned that she could produce burning light from her eyes and wind from her lips, and it took some practice to be able to regulate and conceal them. She learned that humans were fragile like glass and if she didn't watch her own strength then sometimes when she would touch Lena, her porcelain skin would deepen with dark bruising and a restrained whimper of pain would pass her beautiful lips. Kara then learned that she hated when that happened more than anything. 

She learned how to speak some of their confusing language, she learned that they enjoyed rather trashy, mind rotting TV, she learned that they had thousands upon thousands of different species on this planet and that most of them were rather cute, she learned that people loved to carry around one of these more domestic animals on ropes and Lena would allow her to pet them sometimes. She learned that they had small devices that they used to communicate to each other with and vehicles that could take them anywhere they wished to go, while staying steadily on the ground. She learned that Kal-El was still alive and fighting what must be the corruption that her father had spoken of, though she had no idea how he had grown so large and old when she was merely the same age as when she had left Krypton. She learned that she didn't like to be out of Lena's presence and that the world grew much more confusing when Lena wasn't their to guide her through it. 

She learned that she missed Krypton more than anything, that it felt like a part of her had been cut out and stolen every second that she was away. But she also learned that she liked the humans, she liked their language and their animals. She liked their nature and their world.

But out of all the humans, Kara learned that Lena still stood out like angel above them all; she was far kinder and prettier, her voice more soothing and her presence more captivating. It was as though she had some sort of power, where she was able to drag Kara into her orbit with just a mere look, and keep her there for all eternity.

While most humans that Kara has met have been nice, Lena still manages to outshine them all with her astonishing amount of care and affection; since the very first night that they had met, Lena personally took it upon herself to watch over and protect Kara, even though she had absolutely no reason to do so. She'd fed her and bathed her, dressed her and gave her a bed to sleep in, and then didn't get to mad when Kara dismissed that bed entirely and crawled into hers instead, because the silence and the darkness that encompassed the Earth after the yellow sun went down still reminded her of her time suspended, left all alone in space, and the sound of Lena's quiet breathing and rhythmic heartbeat laying next to her was the only way she managed to get herself to sleep.

Lena calmed Kara down when she had panic attacks about the strange material world around her, and she didn't get mad when the blonde would accidentally break all of the furniture in her house (and out of her house.) She stopped Kara from walking into the middle of traffic and she made sure that the Kryptonian never accidentally hurt anybody. She bought her a closet full of new clothes and she took her to grocery stores and let her eat literally anything that she could get her hands on (this didn't always end up being pleasant, but Kara was learning new things and most human food was delicious, she decided, so it was okay.) She helped her control her newfound powers, even when she ended up with bruises and broken furniture from it, and she taught her how to use all of the vital human appliances. She comforted Kara when she woke up from the same nightmare about watching her family and home be destroyed every single night, and she always listened to Kara ramble for hours on end in Kryptonese whenever she really wanted to talk about something or just missed the feeling of her first language on her tongue, even though Kara knew that the Luthor had no idea what she was saying. 

Lena didn't have any other family or friends, it seemed, but she still never minded when Kara would cuddle up against her during the late hours of the night or hold her hand during the day time. Lena never seemed to be smiling if it wasn't Kara she was smiling at, but she still didn't seem to mind (to much, atleast) when the Kryptonian would make funny faces at her while she was trying to work or abruptly pick her up and run away with her when she was doing something rather important (if the serious expression she had on her face was anything to go by,) since it never failed to make her laugh. Lena never stopped working either, always had a laptop and spread sheets sprawled out across every surface that she was occupying, but even then she never minded when Kara would plop down next to her and use everything in her ability to distract Lena away from her hard work, wether it be with English sentences she was learning to recite or open books that the blonde wanted her to read to her being pushed over the important papers.

Lena was warm where everybody else was cold, smooth where everybody else was rigid, and beautiful where everybody else was ugly. With breathtaking, misty jade eyes and a smile so bright that every star in the galaxy tries to mock it, Lena was by far the most marvelous thing that Kara had found, or would ever find, on this Earth.

She knew that without Lena, this captivating world that she had crash landed on would grow meaningless. And she knew that without herself, Lena would once again be alone and unhappy under the yellow sun, without anybody to make her smile or laugh, to keep her company or to drag her away from her work.

So maybe that's why she had picked up Lena and tossed her over her shoulder before they had been ushered into the large, rundown van that the mysterious agents drove. She didn't want her to be alone. Or maybe, it was because she just never wanted to be away from Lena for longer than absolutely necessary ever again.

Or maybe it was a bit of both.

But either way, that's how they ended up here, in the back of a sleek black van that she had only ever seen be used to kidnap people in low budget action movies. 

Kara had put Lena down once they had entered the van, gently sliding her off her shoulder and setting her down into her lap instead. Lena had just scowled at her then, her jet black hair mused from being upside down and her face flushed from the blood pooling to her head. She looked adorable like that, her face grumpy and her lips formed in a pout, and Kara couldn't help the smile she gave in response. Lena had then shuffled off her lap (much to Kara's displeasure,) and plopped herself down to the left of the Kryptonian, huddling Kara into the very corner of the car where she was the farthest away from the small group of agents sitting opposite of them– something that was rather intentional if the protective glare that Lena was sending them was any indicator.

They were propped up against one of the two large doors that opened at the butt of the car, Kara trying to focus on the feeling of vibrations coursing up and down her spine due to the pothole riddled road, instead of the cries of agony that the man five feet away from her was expressing; there was three FBI agents sat opposite of them, all slumped up against the chain linked barrier built between them and the drivers seats (the only seats in the car.) 

The agent on the far right had strawberry blonde hair and a grimace on his bearded face as he stared intimidatingly back at Lena, his large muscles flexed and a rather big gun placed tensely in his chubby hands. Kara decided rather quickly that she didn't like this human, he was just as ugly as her father had warned. 

On the far left was a brunette woman who hadn't looked away from Kara since the moment she'd slid into the back of the van, one arm placed protectively around the blonde in the middle and the other arm wrapped cautiously around her weapon, her wide eyes tracking Kara's every movement as though the alien would suddenly lunge at her at any moment. 

In the middle of the two agents was the blonde boy that Kara had accidentally hurt, his eyes still slammed shut and his teeth gritted together as he whined and whimpered in pain. Kara felt really bad about it, she hadn't actually meant to _hurt_ him. But he had been hurting _Lena_ and the mere sight of it had caused her vision swim in red and made her forget to regulate her own strength like she normally would while touching a human. She was still getting use to her newly founded powers and she forgot during that split moment that she could do such devastating damage to human beings.

So now his hand was twisted and deformed, and the agents were all staring at her like she was some kind of monster because of it. And she can't help but shrink further into the corner of the van, her knees coming up to hug into her chest and her face partially hidden behind them.

Lena seems to notice her internal dilemma (because of course she does, she's _Lena_ ) and suddenly warm fingers are prying apart her fisted hand, crawling into the space that her knuckles had just occupied and interlocking with her own. 

"Are you okay, Kara?" Lena whispers quietly, all signs of the anger that she had been exhibiting only moments before now completely gone and replaced by a heart warming tentativeness, her head titled down so she can make eye contact with the blonde and her thick eyebrows drawn together in concern.

And Kara was still learning the English language and all of its quirks and rules, but she understands that question perfectly– it was one that Lena asks her often, everytime the world would grow too loud around her or after she'd woken up crying from yet another nightmare and Lena had spent a half an hour whispering comforting words into her ear and soothing her soft hands through her hair and up and down her arm.

"Yeah." Is all Kara is able to mumble back to the worried girl sitting besides her, her face still buried into the comfort of her knees.

"It's going to be okay, darling. I promise." Lena whispers to the girl after she notices that that was all she's going to get from the blonde.

And Kara still isn't sure what that word means, or all the other words that Lena uses to refer to her with, _darling, lovely,_ or _honey._ Kara had even tried to look the latter up in the dictionary that Lena had given her one time, but all that came up was the description of a sticky, sweet yellow substance that bees create. And she is still completely lost on why Lena would refer to her as such a thing. But even in her confusion, she still enjoys the pet names and the way they sounded coming out of Lena's mouth, the way her voice would turn sweeter around the word and the slight accent that she seemed to have even whilst nobody else did, would become more pronounced. 

But while Kara was getting much better at understanding the English language, she still had a hard time with speaking it. So she just turns her head until her cheekbone rests against her knee, gives Lena a small smile, and says the same thing that she says everytime that Lena says something like that. "Promise?" 

Lena gives her her own smile, toothy and reassuring enough that Kara feels all of the tension she hadn't known she'd been holding in her body melt away. "Promise." 

Kara smiles a little bigger then before shuffling even closer to the raven haired beauty, taking her cheek off her knee and instead resting it against Lena's shoulder only a little hesitantly. But Lena doesn't tense under the weight or push her off, so the hesitancy vanishes under Kara's need to feel Lena close to her.

Kara is able to ignore the cries of the man across from her, as well as the glares of the other two agents, until the car comes to a halt. Lena pushes her away from the doors that they're resting on then, breaking the contact of Kara's head on her shoulder as she scoots further away from the black metal. Kara's only confused for a second before the aforementioned doors swing open, flooding the dark space with blinding yellow light, and the other two agent's that had been in the front seats of the car come jumping into the trunk. They both have bags in their hands, black and woven, big enough to carry a watermelon with but not much larger. Kara doesn't have much time to think about this new development before the brunette on the left comes shuffling over to her and pulls the bag right over her head, making the light that she had been bathing in disappear once more.

She absently wonders if they know that she can see right through the bag, can see as a man (rather aggressively, she notes,) pulls one over Lena's head too, grabs her wrists and uses his bulgy arms to pull her up and out of the van. She watches as Lena stumbles as she all but falls out of the van, clearly unprepared for the sudden drop that they had tugged her off of. Kara feels hands grab onto her own wrists then, but she rips them out of the grasp in a mere second and uses her superspeed to hop out of the trunk of the car and grab ahold of Lena before she can fall onto the asphalt underneath them. She glares devilishly at the man who was standing besides Lena (forgetting the bag still over her head,) his arms laid stiffly at his sides like he would've been happy to just watch as she fell to the ground and bruised her porcelain skin.

Kara sneers at him even though he can't see it and listens half-heartedly while the agents mutter about how they should've lined the bags with led– whatever that meant. Lena's hands shoot up suddenly then, her pale fingers grasping almost desperately onto her exposed biceps and her rigid body turning near liquid as she relaxes into Kara's hold on her waist. 

"Kara?" She asks like she's making sure of something.

"It's okay." Kara mocks her words back to her, her hold tightening only slightly against the other girls cotton clad hips when she sees Lena's tense expression melt into a small, relieved smile. 

She was nervous, Kara could tell. If she was anybody else then she wouldn't think so– the girls posture was erect and her hands weren't noticeably shaking. She looked composed and unperturbed. But Kara knew her well enough now - from following and observing her for days to weeks on end - that she could see the anxious roll of her eyes as they twitched back and forth minisculely, and the subtle way that she bit the inside of bottom lip. She could feel the barely noticeable tremor of Lena's body underneath her grip and the way she dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand hard enough to break skin– she did that one a lot, enough that she left pink crescent moons against the pale flesh for days after she'd done it. The only way Kara could get her to stop was when she'd break the grip and replace the empty space with her own hand, so she does just that and interlocks their fingers together once more.

Lena relaxes a little bit at the hand in her own, letting her other fist fall open as well. Kara smiles. "Do you want me to c-carry you?" She whispers in her thick accent. 

Lena laughs in surprise, a much larger smile on her face as she shakes her bag covered head and blindly nudges Kara's chest with her shoulder. "I belive I can manage, thank you though, darling." 

Kara just smiles in return, giving a small, defeated "okay" and squeezing the hand in her hold. She's about to say more but she's abruptly cut off by a different hand grabbing onto her bicep and tugging her with them as they make their way into a large building, Lena and the man leading her close behind. 

When they're safely a ways into the building, at the heart of it where there is people busking around busily and large monitoring TV screens surrounding one large wall at the furthest end of the big room, surrounded by sleek desks that are occupied by even more agents. They take the bags off of both women's heads, it doesn't really make anything different for Kara but she shakes her head out anyways and uses the free hand that isn't holding Lena's to scuffle with her hair. Lena does much the same besides her, soothing down the straight black locks as her jade eyes wander curiously around the large room.

"This isn't FBI headquarters." Lena tells, not asks, the brunette that is still holding Kara's bicep. And the blonde doesn't really know what any of that means, so she spaces out the conversation and looks around the room while they talk rather passive aggressively around her; the monitors against the furthest walls are huge, bigger than the TV screens that Lena has in her house, and instead of reality TV shows they display different locations throughout the city, watching as citizens bustle down the streets unknowingly. The smaller screens above the occupied black desks have something different however, with black screens and incoherent acid green words and numbers being typed out in some sort of code. One of the boys at these desks is staring at her intently, his wide doe brown eyes following her every movement with barely concealed curiosity, looking like he was seconds away from jumping up and out of the swiveling chair that he was sitting on. 

Kara smiles at the brunette and brings her hand up to give him a small wave. His doe eyes widen to twice their size at the acknowledgement but he doesn't hesitate to bring his hand up to wave as well, giving her a big toothy smile in return. 

Kara shuffles on her feet and lets her hand fall limp besides her before walking towards the boy curiously, hearing the spiteful conversation going on around her come to an abrupt stop as she drags Lena along with her, the quick steps behind her telling her that the brunette agent is following closely as well. 

The boy seems to grow nervous with the sudden intrusion, but his excitement only grows as he jumps out of the chair to stand in front of her. 

"Hi." She waves once more, even though he's only a few feet from her now.

"Hi." He answers back breathlessly.

"I'm Kara." She tells him wisely, thrusting her hand forward in a greeting that Lena had taught her. The boys seems to understand the silent offering and places his hand in her own, shaking it gently before letting it go.

"I'm Winn." He tells her with an anxious smile. 

"It's nice to meet you, Winn." She tells him with a nod of her head, her words practiced and perfected. 

"It's nice to meet you too." He says honestly, his body practically vibrating with poorly concealed energy.

She smiles at him toothily in answer before using her free hand to point at the figurine on his desk. "What's that?" 

He looks bemused by the sudden subject change, his head shooting over to look at the small Superman pop figure on his desk. "It's um, Superman. I'm a big fan."

Kara's eyebrows knit together at that, scrutinizing the small toy. She looks over the blue suit, slicked back hair, and the crest laid proudly on his chest, and comes to the conclusion that surely enough, that is a very tiny version of the Kal-El that Kara had seen on TV.

"Kal-El?" She asks the nervous boy dubiously as she picks up the figurine.

His eyes widen even further and his head whips up and down quickly, his smile growing even wider in excitement. "Yeah. You know him?" He asks, though his tone suggests that he already knows the answer.

"He is my–" she looks over to Lena, who is watching them amusedly besides her, and silently asks her for confirmation on her word choice, "cousin?" 

Lena nods her head with a small, proud smile that only achieves a larger one from Kara before she's looking over to the boy who she had been talking to. Though he looks seconds away from passing out now, his smile so wide it must hurt and his body bouncing up and down as he rocks on the balls of his feet. " _OhmyGod,_ really? Can you fly? Can you shoot lasers out of your eyes? Can I see? How fast can you run? Is it faster than him?" He asks in a rush of words, too many and too quick for Kara to understand.

She just tilts her head at him in response before looking over to Lena for direction. "Kara's not fluent in English just yet, she only understands simple and general sentences." Lena elaborates for her.

She looks over to the boy, who's excitement had deflated a bit at the knowledge that he couldn't berate her with questions. She smiles at him in apology before turning to place the figurine back on the desk, not noticing the large crack she had accidentally created running down Superman's pale plastic, until Winn let out a pained gasp and a strangled protest as he snatched it up. Kara frowns at the sight of the man blubbering over the damaged toy and is seconds away from apologising to Winn, when Lena abruptly talks before she has a chance. "I can pay for that." She tells him reassuringly, and it seems enough to placate him.

Kara grows bored of the man's prolonged explanation to Lena, who's nodding along to his words dutifully, that she can't understand. Instead, her eyes then wander over the vacated desk until they land on something else that holds her interest– the dark screen with the incoherent neon green lettering.

"What is that?" She asks once more as her hand shoots out to touch it, hearing Lena's squeak of protest and Winn's stuttered explanation of the device only seconds before it crumples in her grasp, a large piece breaking off with her hand and the shattered screen turning black.

Kara stares at the broken piece of glass and metal with a disappointed frown before setting it back down onto the desk gently. She gives a wide-eyed Winn another apologetic smile as Lena rushes to say, "I'll pay for that too." 

She's said it enough times now that Kara understands the meaning even without looking it up or asking Lena.

But Winn doesn't seem deterred by the broken property, instead he seems even more excited than he had before as he examines the broken pieces, muttering an "incredible" as he does so.

Kara's about to ask more questions but she's cut off by another unfamiliar voice. "Hello, Lena Luthor, Kara Zor-El–" he greets them both with a handshake as he says their names, the strength of which he does so is stronger than any other human Kara had encountered. "It's nice to meet you both. I'm John Jones, Director of the FBI."

Lena and Kara both mutter their acknowledgements in answer, Lena's voice much more restrained than Kara's as she eyes him suspiciously.

"I was wondering if I could discuss something with you, Ms. Luthor. In private." He adds the last part when Lena nods but doesn't make any move to disconnect her hand from Kara's. 

"I don't believe I'm comfortable with that." Lena tells the man plainly, her voice disconnected and cold in a way that Kara had never heard before. It makes her stand on alert and give the man another glance, looking him over for any signs of danger that she had missed but Lena had caught. 

"No harm will come to Kara, you have my word. I just want to discuss legal matters with you." John tells the guarded woman, his voice deep as an ocean but smooth like butter.

"And I'm supposed to just believe you?" Lena asks the man in the same incredulous tone, one perfectly sculpted eyebrow raising in question.

"You know better than anybody else that there is no possible way for us to hurt her, even if we wished to, Ms. Luthor." He tells her in an honest voice. 

They stand in silence for a few more prolonged moments, Lena silently staring at the man across from them. Her jade coloured eyes scrutinize the man closely, searching for any sign of deception. When she seemingly doesn't find any, she turns to Kara with a comforting smile.

"Find me if you feel unsafe or uncomfortable, okay?" Lena says slowly and in a clear voice, waiting to see if Kara understands her words before making any motion to leave. She does, and she shows it by giving the worried woman a nod of her head and a vibrant smile, hoping to melt away the anxiety weighing so noticeably on the heiress. 

Lena smiles in relief and gives Kara's hand a tight squeeze before letting go of it. "Please behave, my dear." She tells her one last time before being lead away by the tall man, grinning even wider when Kara just winks in response.

When Lena is out of their sights, Kara's attention is dragged away from using her powers to watch Lena walk into a glass room by the brunette woman still standing behind her. "Follow me, Kara. I want to show you something." She says it kindly, though the boy standing besides them grows even more nervous. 

"Okay." She agrees easily, trailing behind the brunette dutifully. The boy comes with them as well, his feet shuffling behind Kara.

The girl leads her down a series of hallways then, the walls tall and marbled gray. There's several clear glass rooms and doors that they pass, though Alex doesn't stop at any of them until they land at a large, solid metal door at the end of one of the long hallways. It's a sharp contrast to the glass ones that Kara had been staring curiously into only minutes before, and the sudden change makes her only more inquisitive.

Alex opens the heavy door with only slight strain on her muscles, holding it open with a nonchalant smile as Kara and Winn shuffle inside the room. The blonde looks around curiously at her new surroundings, though the room isn't that exciting to look at; it's only about sixty square feet, built almost entirely out of concrete with the exception of a small glass room that takes up almost half of it. There was concrete benches on the furthest wall from the glass containment and one inside it as well. 

Kara walks around the room slowly, examining the empty space curiously, trailing her hand up and down the concrete walls and feeling the rigid rocks under the pads of her fingers until she lands in the glass containment, walking inside it and testing out the glass– it was thick, about a foot long, and much stronger than Kara had been expecting. There was an opening at one end of the glass, with a clear flap that could be pushed up and down to close and open it, it was hip level and only large enough to fit something like a long book inside. Kara wiggles her fingers into it absently while looking up at the high concrete ceilings that the glass connected with.

"What is t-this?" Kara asks the brunette without looking at her, wonder in her voice as she contemplates why the agent would want to show her it.

"Your new home." Alex tells her, her voice laced with something close to regret as she grabs the glass door and shuts it behind Kara, locking it up and quickly taking a few paces back. Kara's eyes snap down from the ceiling to watch her do this, but she doesn't make a move to stop her; it's not like she couldn't just break the locks off the door if she wanted to, it was one of the quirks of living under a yellow sun. 

She smiles slightly and shakes her head in disagreement. "This i-isn't my h-h-home." She says matter-of-factly while walking over to sit on the bench inside the cell, testing the strength of it as she bounces up and down gently.

"It is now, atleast until we can teach you to regulate your powers correctly." Alex responds, a sorry expression on her face. 

"Lena helps me w-with my po-powers." Kara tells her proudly, not understanding most of what had just been said to her but understanding the discussion of her powers, something that Lena tended to talk about a lot when she was trying to help Kara control her newly founded strength and speed. 

Alex shuffles on her feet then, her eyes scrutinizing Kara and her arms coming up to fold across her chest. "Do you like Lena?" She asks simply, unbelievingly.

Kara laughs at the question, her legs swinging back and forth underneath her. "Yes, I love Lena." She tells her like it's obvious, like it's a fact that you could find in a common textbook.

Alex seems upset by the answer, a frown dragging her lips down and her eyebrows knitted closely together, but she doesn't say anything else in response. Just shifts her weight onto her left foot, popping her hip out, and watching Kara closely, like she could get an answer to her silent question just by merely looking at the alien.

Kara just smiles at her and looks down to watch her bare legs swing back and forth until they're interrupted by the creaking of the metal door being flung open, quick steps falling into the concrete room and a set of much calmer, heavier steps behind those ones. Kara knows who the feet belong to even before she hears Lena's voice,

"Kara!" She calls, sounding out of breath and anxious. The blondes eyes snap up to examine the restless heiress, smiling when she sees her attempt to pry the glass door open fruitlessly before giving up in favor of pacing around the glass cell like a tiger at a zoo, seemingly searching for a way in. 

Kara gets up from the bench and walks over to the door then, attempting to swing it open like she had minutes beforehand so she can walk over and comfort Lena, who is now yelling accusingly at the other three people in the room. She frowns, however, when she finds that she can't open the door, tugging harder against the handle with more force when it stays ceiled shut. She forces her super strength upon it then, having never had an object not break under the strength of her hands in this universe, but while it does creak unhappily at the intrusion until the handle breaks off in her hand, it still doesn't open the glass door. 

She lets the door go then, bewildered by the knowledge that she can't seem to force it open upon first contact– it's the most Kryptonian she's felt since she landed on Earth, not being able to break or force her way through everything and everybody, just like she'd been under the watchful red sun back on her home planet. She thought the new development could comfort her, but it doesn't.

She walks over to where Lena has stopped pacing to yell angrily at the agents in the room, her tone threatening in a way that Kara has never heard before. She drops to the concrete floor and sits with her legs folded in front of her, her bare knees touching the cold glass and her tan legs resting against the concrete floors, trying to make sense of the conversation going on in front of her as she does so. 

"You can't put her in a cage, she's not a fucking animal. Let her out or I swear to God–" Lena's angry voice cracks with emotion as she yells at them, her jade eyes watery and her pale skin flushed.

"Ms. Luthor, I'm ten seconds away from calling security to come and haul you out of this building." Alex threatens her, the emotion that had been dripping down her face whilst she talked to the blonde only minutes before, vanishing under the sickening sense of joy that she seemed to get from watching Lena crumble. 

Kara can't fully tell what she'd said, but her tone of voice and the way that Lena's own cracks even further as emotion oozes through the seams, makes the aliens hackles rise.

"I already told you once before and won't say it again, Ms. Luthor, if you wish to ever see Kara again than you will do what is in her best interest and leave right now. You can visit her tomorrow, in the morning." John says in a more restrained voice than the others agent's. 

The argument goes on for a few more minutes, wherein Lena's yells get louder and scarier and the brunette grabs her phone and calls security to come and get the raven haired beauty. Kara doesn't understand any of it, but she does understand the stress that Lena is undergoing, looking moments away from ripping her own hair out of her head.

Kara knocks lightly against the thick glass then, catching Lena's attention away from the three strongly contrasting agents: John cool and collected, Winn guilty and awkward, and Alex vibrating with anger and resentment. The latter is something that Kara had grown used to people using against Lena– she wasn't quite sure why literally everybody always seemed to grow mad or resentful at the young CEO, especially when they are nothing but kind for the first few moments of conversation. It seems as soon as they hear her name, every ounce of kindness and care slips away and is replaced by a blistering hot hatred instead. Even when Lena has does nothing but smile at them. 

It never fails to make Kara's blood boil, especially since she had no idea why. 

Lena hears the knock against the glass and ignores the glares aimed at her in favor of dropping to the floor in front of Kara. Her livid expression melting into one of warmth as her pale hands come up to rest against the thick glass, her smile sad and apologetic.

"Okay listen to me, lovely–" she leans forward, her forehead meeting the glass and her fingers slipping slightly against it as though she was attempting to grab a hold of it. Her soothing voice is a sharp contrast to what it had been moments before, the anger giving way to the pooling emotion. Kara all but melts at the tone, letting the tension and worry ease from her body for a moment as she places her forehead against the slab as well.

"It's okay. Everything's going to be okay. You're going to have to stay here with them for a little bit, but I swear I'll be back at the first sign of light to come and get you. Okay, Kara?" Lena asks, her voice desperate as she shuffles against the concrete floors, her yoga pants grating on the ground. 

She sounds like she's in pain just from forcing the words out of her throat. 

She sounds sorrowful and desperate, slightly terrified.

And Kara wishes for nothing more than to comfort her, to wipe away the anxious expression on her face and get rid of the panic weighing on her shoulders. So even though she doesn't fully understand what Lena has just told her, she smiles obliviously in response and nods her head,

"Promise?" She asks with a watery giggle, grinning even wider when it earns a smile from the heiress who seems seconds away from crying.

"I promise, darling." She tells her only seconds before a group of large, burly men come bursting through the door and walking over to Lena, grabbing her by the arms ane pulling her up so easily that she looks like a rag doll in their huge hands. Kara watches earnestly as Lena calls to her incoherently while they lift her up and off the floor in their arms and drag her out of the room in the blink of an eye, the metal door falling shut behind them. 

Kara's wide, reassuring smile falls into a frown the second that she's out of her sight and the rooms falls obscenely quiet for the first time since Kara had landed on this painstakingly loud Earth. 

It probably should be comforting. It isn't.


	7. VII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara follows suit– their eyes like melting magnets of colour, dripping with poorly concealed emotion and meaning, forcing them together even as the world tried to tear them apart; it wasn't the first time that Lena had felt the pull, throwing her forward whenever her eyes met the blue ones that she had grown so accustomed to drowning in, but it was by far the strongest she'd ever felt it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did somebody call for 7,000 words of Kara being an absolute dork and Lena being a total bad bitch?? bc that's what ur about to get b.
> 
> do I know how to write angst? not rlly. do I know how to write tooth rotting yearning™? yes, yes I do.
> 
> I actually really enjoyed writing this chapter, it's definitely one of my faves, so I hope y'all enjoy reading it :))

Lena had gone to bed absolutely livid.

They had pulled her away from Kara under the ruse of needing to discuss legal matters– which just consisted of John Jones attempting to force her into signing an NDA that promised that she wouldn't expose or press legal charges against the secret government facility that had broken into her home and trampled all over her private property. In exchange for her silence, he'd promised that she'd get to keep in contact with and visit Kara– which had then promptly thrown Lena head first into a hurricane of her own anger and threats. He had stayed annoyingly calm and stoic as she freaked out and threatened to sue him twenty ways to Saturday, waiting patiently until she'd worn herself ragged with her Oscar worthy threats, and then informing her that she didn't really have a choice in the matter and that this would be the only plausible way for her to be allowed to see Kara ever again– belaying the admission that without them, Superman would never allow Lena to even _think_ about the blonde ever again, and even if Kara fought against him on the matter, they had enough Kryptonite to render her immobile, if not dead. 

After a lengthy exchange of poker faces and thinly veiled threats, Lena reluctantly ended up signing the NDA in fear of harm befalling Kara because of Lena's own selfish need to keep the blonde close to her. 

But by the time that she had said good-bye to Kara, been dragged out of the government building, tossed into the back of a van with a bag tied securely around her head, and all but thrown onto the porch of her house– Lena had already conjured up a plan on how to release the Kryptonian from the DEO's clutches. 

She was starkly reminded - her legging-clad knees scraping against the concrete of her front patio and leaving grated blood and flesh in it's wake as she's dropped carelessly to the ground by two bulky agents grunting cruelties under their breath - that she was in fact a Luthor, blood bound or not. And Luthor's– wether they're fighting for world domination or for the freedom of a girl that they adore– don't back down from fights. And they surely don't allow themselves to be bested, either.

It's with her mother's mantra of reminders to be stronger, be better, be smarter, and more cunning– that she stays up for the better part of the night and uses the "hacktivist" classes that she had participated in during college, to the best of her knowledge– hacking into the DEO's painfully encrypted database and not allowing her sleep deprived mind to fall under the daunting aroma of unconsciousness until she's positive that she correctly programed Kara's cell door to unlock along with every other electricity driven appliance (e.g. monitors, computers, generators, etc.) when they are powered on in the morning. As well as cutting off the air-conditioning in the vents leading up to Kara's captivity, so they wouldn't blow against her when she was crawling through them.

She studied the blueprints of the building until her eyes burned with the memory of them imprinted against her inner eyelids. She studied them until she memorized every single way that one could get in and out of the facility, studying work schedules to figure out where every agent would be posted and plotting a precise plan on how she would sneak Kara out of the cage that they had trapped her in and get away with her; contemplating plane ticket prices and destinations, and calculating who she could put in charge of her company while she's away, getting Kara comfrotable in a new life away from the government agency that wished to weaponize and manipulate her.

She only allows herself to fall asleep when she's got a full, impenetrable plan on Kara's get away from the US and their corrupted government (she always knew that she should've stayed in Ireland.) And three other backup plans she can turn to in case that one falls through, because Lena's nothing if not efficient. Letting herself drift off into unconsciousness, her exhausted body still stirring with excess anger and resentment as the darkness swims through her vision and overtakes her thoughts. 

Lena wakes up from bed to the sound of glass shattering along with a heavy thump against her hardwoods floors. Her eyes shoot open so quickly that the change in lighting gives her mind whiplash, jumping up from the warm covers of her bed and scrambling up to press against the tall headboard at the top of her bed– a thousand thoughts whip through her head like a whirlwind at that moment, drowning out any residing emotions that may be lurking in the depths of her mind from just an hour or so previously (if the neon light glowing on her alarm clock was anything to go by,) and instead ambushing her with images of Lex; of his rage filled eyes, of the way he smiled at her before being dragged away by the guards, grinning with something so cold and terrifying wedged between the gaps in his teeth that it imprinted itself into the forefront of her mind, presenting itself's whenever she dared to close her eyes. 

She had known, just from that devilish smirk and reeling eyes, that that wasn't the last she'd hear of Lex, that that wouldn't be the last chance that he had to pull the rug up from beneath her feet and send her toppling down a cliff built of her own demise. She'd always known, in the posterior of her mind, behind all the comforting memories of Lex's late night calls and extravagant presents– that her brother wasn't her brother anymore, and he _would_ try to kill her someday.

She just hadn't thought it'd be this soon. 

And the thought that she had grown so comfortable with in the past few weeks– having a strong, protective Kryptonian sleeping next to her, trailing behind her, and carrying her around, could protect her against anything or anybody that Lex sends her way– is suddenly a futile wish.

Her left hand shoots out to turn on the lamp on her bedside table at the same time that her right one darts out to grab the silver pistol that she kept in her drawer, thrusting it out to be pointed aimlessly at the intruder.

But she's cut off abruptly by the sight of a familiar blonde, laid across her floor in a heap of tangled limps and shattered glass– seconds before she's shooting up from the ground and spinning around to face Lena with a bright, guilty smile that the heiress had grown so accustomed to seeing. 

"Kara?" She questions almost unbelievingly. 

"Hi." The blondes grin is bashful as she brings her hand up and offers a small, passive wave to the raven haired girl still wielding a gun at her.

She examines the blonde alien for only a few more seconds before dropping her arm limply at her side, her body slumping against the headboard behind her as she feels relief flood her veins from head to toe– both at Kara being home and safe, and at the knowledge that tonight wasn't the night that she died at the hands of her brother's assassin.

Though the languid feeling only lasts for a few prolonged moments before her eyes are snapping up to scrutinize the blonde closely, searching the Kryptonian for any sign of injury; her clothes are wrinkled and ripped from flying through the window and rutting against shards of jagged glass, her tank top ripped from the bottom of her sport bra clad breasts to just above the waist line of her shorts on the right side, letting a glimpse her chiseled abdomen lay on display under the artificial flood of light that her small lamp was providing. Lena's eyes strayed on the tan, toned skin for a few moments more than absolutely necessary before she's tearing them away and continuing her visual path down the girls body. Her outfits accompanied by a few more smaller rips and tears, but other than that, Lena can't find any abnormalities on the other girl. 

"W-What are you– H-How– Why– W-Wha–" Lena stuttered incoherently, her mind a jumble of different thoughts as her eyes drew from the blonde to the third story window that she had just jumped through.

Thankfully, Kara saves her from further embarrassing herself with eligible stuttering by cutting her off. "I had a nightmare." She states it plainly, like it explained absolutely everything that had just occured. Lena wonders if, in her mind, it did. Or if it was just her limited knowledge on the English language that was holding her back.

"You had a nightmare?" Lena repeats back breathlessly, her questions taking the back seat of her mind as worry overtakes her senses. "Are you okay?" She asks, watching Kara roll up and down on the balls of her feet, standing by the bed idly.

Kara grins at the question, taking it as some sort of unspoken invitation as she crawls up and onto the bed until she's on the other side, sitting besides Lena. She slips her bare legs under the warmth of the covers and then holds up the side closest to Lena silently, staring down at the heiress pointedly until she shrinks under the gaze with a sigh, picking up the silver gun once more and placing it into her bedside table before slipping her legs back under the covers that she had been previously occupying, sliding down the bed until she was no longer mounted on top of the mountain of pillows at the head of the mattress.

"I'm okay now." Kara tells her with a happy smile, scooting closer to Lena until their legs touch underneath the blue sheets. 

Lena examines her composure for a few beats, staring her down for any signs of deception. When she doesn't find any obvious signs of dishonesty, she follows Kara's far-away gaze where it had landed distractingly in front of them, her blue eyes seeming unfocused and disoriented for just a few flickering moments, like she had just contemplated a passing, painful thought before it disappears just as quickly as it came.

"Promise?" She asks, turning her head away from the dark room lurking in front of her until cerulean eyes melt into jade ones, meeting in a way that reminded Lena of the morning sky touching against the tops of the trees as they met at the horizon.

Kara grins, her smile so bright that the silver moonlight leaking freely through the room, no longer restrained by the barrier of a window, pales in comparison to the glow. "Promise."

Lena let's silence envelop them for a few moments after Kara's gentle voice trails off and gets lost in the warm midnight wind, words loosing their meaning under their intensive stares. She feels a tug in her chest, an invisible string lassoing around her heart and pulling so hard that it tilts her body forward. Kara follows suit, their eyes like melting magnets of colour, dripping with poorly concealed emotion and meaning, forcing them together even as the world tried to tear them apart; it wasn't the first time that Lena had felt the pull, throwing her forward whenever her eyes met the blue ones that she had grown accustomed to drowning in, but it was by far the strongest she'd ever felt it.

She only stops when Kara's face is a few inches from her own, close enough that she can feel her warm breath fan across her lips. The blondes gaze is distant and dazed as she stares at Lena almost longingly, and the expression on her face is so beautiful, so innocent and _naive,_ that it picks Lena up and throws her right out of her daze– she can't let herself fall under the spell of the aliens enticing beauty, she can't allow herself to _feel_ that way about the other woman. It would be unfair to Kara, to impose her feelings on the blonde when she was so new to this confusing world, when she didn't know what feelings were what or what was normal and what wasn't yet, when she didn't know what the difference between a romantic relationship and a platonic one was yet. She can't allow herself to take advantage of the naive alien like that, to confuse and manipulate her into a relationship that she might not even want, with a human that she might not even want. No, they were friends, and that was all Lena would allow them to be. 

She couldn't let her lonely brain romanticize the only friendship that she had left.

She feels like her body had just been tossed into an ice cold lake as she pulls back abruptly, creating a self-made space between them that has Kara frowning at her, though Lena isn't quite sure why. She clears her throat awkwardly, her voice suddenly disappearing into the depths of her throat, coming out raspy and grated against her suddenly too heavy tongue. "So, how did you get out of the DEO?" 

Kara just frowns at her silently for a few more moments, her body still leaned forward as her gaze flickers up and down Lena's face with an unreadable expression. Eventually, she lets a frustrated sigh escape her lips and backs up so she's no longer folding over to be closer to Lena, clearing her throat and licking her lips before answering. "I walked out." 

Lena gives her a dubious look then, her eyebrows furthering together as she shuffles around once more to face Kara a little more head on, like she had just moments beforehand. "You–You just, _walked out?_ " She asks disbelievingly, doing a veage, overtly casual sweep with her hand.

"Yeah." Kara confirms, like it's simple, like it's something she could've done all along. Lena narrows her eyes at her in a way that Kara had grown familiar with, it was the same glare she gave Kara every time that the blonde wasn't being expressive enough or talking enough, it silently commanded the Kryptonian to elaborate. 

She sighed again. "I j-jumped at the glass." 

Lena gives her a dumbfounded look, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. "You threw yourself at it?" 

"Yeah."

"And that worked? You threw yourself at it and it shattered?"

Kara looked only slightly confused as she nodded her head. "Yeah."

They have a staring contest for a few long moments of silence before Lena abruptly reaches out with her right hand, bringing it out from under the comforts of the bedding and flinging it out to slap Kara against the arm, ignoring the pain that jolts down her own arm as she does so and the unaffected gaze that the alien gives her, not even blinking at the strike. "What the fuck, Kara. You could've broken the glass the _entire time?"_

"Yeah." Kara confirms once more, seemingly confused on why Lena was upset by the matter.

" _What the fuck,_ Kara?" In an instant, Lena's hand is darting back out to smack the same spot on Kara's arm, harder than she had before. She feels pain reviate down her arm once more, stabbing at her nerve endings and making her slack palm feel like it had just collided with a brick wall. She shakes out the limp hand, letting out a small whine of pain as her words trail off.

"What?" Kara asks dumbly, completely unaffected by the feeling of Lena slapping her arm, reacting as though it was nothing more than a fly flapping its wings against her skin.

Lena's arm shoots out once more, the heiress mentally preparing herself for the pain that she knew would accompany the action, but in the blink of an eye Kara's own fly's up to grab a hold of it, stern but gentle as she slips her fingers between the gaps of her Lena's own instead of letting it go. "Stop it, you're hurting yourself." She demands, her foreign accent thick around the words.

Lena sighs and let's her hand be held captive in the much stronger one. "If you could have left the whole time, than why didn't you?" 

Kara contemplates her words for a few moments before shrugging noncommittally, her blonde hair bouncing with the movement of her shoulders and her lips formed in a small pout. "I was confused."

"Confused? About what?" Lena asks, running through their goodbye in her mind and wondering what about it could be _confusing._

"I don't know, okay? I tried to leave, but it didn't wo-work–" she made a gesture with her hand that Lena guessed was supposed to symbolise her attempt to open the door. "And then you were t-t-talking fast and with b-big words. And you looked sad, but you said you co-come in the m-morning. And I th-thought that if I stay, than they'd b-bring Kal-El. But they didn't. And I had a _nightmare._ " She says it like a reminder to Lena, her voice more hushed than it had been before.

Lena listened to the stuttered explanation intently, her eyebrows knitted together as she nodded along patiently. "So you got confused, because I talked too fast and was sad. But I promised that I'd be by in the morning, so you thought you'd just wait there for Kal-El?" Lena asks slowly, making sure she got the jist of the story.

Kara nods vigorously in response. 

Lena can't help the laugh that bubbles up her throat and slips past her lips at the confirmation, her eyes squinting and her head shaking. She had just spent hours upon hours on end making plans to break Kara out– hacking into a top secret government agency and reprogramming their electrical system so that she could break the blonde out, illegally getting a hold of and memorizing the buildings blueprints and drawing out how she'd sneak them through vents and down walls, until they could get out of the facility unnoticed. She had boughten airplane tickets to Ireland and had Sam's name on her speed dial, ready to call her at the first crack of light and abandon her multi-billionaire company in the girls arms. She had their empty suitcases laid out on the floor, ready to be filled and fled with– she had planned _everything,_ from hotels to car rides, and Kara could've just gotten out at any moment that she wished to the entire time.

Kara seemed confused by her abrupt and near manic laughter, but she didn't know nearly enough English words for Lena to explain the extents of which she had just gone in order to escape with Kara. So she just shook her head, swallowing back the laughter as it oozes resistantly against her lips, and squeezes Kara's hand tightly in her own. 

"I'm sorry you didn't get to see Kal-El, my dear." Lena offers her when the laughter subsides, a sad smile on her lips. 

Kara only seems crestfallen for a moment, her cerulean eyes distant as they stare just past her, but then they flicker back to meet Lena's own and she lets a small, genuine smile overtake her lips as she stares at Lena, her gaze loaded with something unreadable, she squeezes Lena's hand back gently. "It's okay." She mutters, sounding like she wants to add something to it, but decides against it.

They sit in silence, gazing at each other for only a few prolonged moments before Lena is looking away, cutting the gaze short with an abrupt but curious laugh. "So you threw yourself at the glass and it broke. But how did you get out of the building?" 

"I walked out." Kara shrugged. 

Lena sighs so heavily that all the air collapses from her lungs, her head flinging back and her gaze boring into the textured ceiling above her. She can't help but smile so widely that she knows her gums are showing when Kara laughs loudly in response, the noise abrupt but beautiful in the quite room. 

"I th-threw myself at the wall." She explains further, her head tilted back and laughter in her words. 

Lena's gaze drops down to Kara at the words, her eyebrows raised questioningly and her smile so wide it hurts her cheeks. "You broke their wall?" 

Kara nodded rapidly in response. "Yeah." 

Lena feels a sickening sense of pride pour through her bloodstream at the confirmation. "Good." She states, making Kara laugh again. 

They sit in a comfrotable silence for a few minutes, both girls lost in their own minds. Lena's gaze stuck on the empty room in front of her, filled with nothing but rarely utilised furniture and the midnight air, leaking in through the shattered window and pouring invisible stars into the room with every breeze that rocked through the Earth. She contemplated how long it'd take to undo the plan that she had so carefully crafted only about an hour or so beforehand, oblivious to Kara's attentive stare tracking her face from besides her.

They sat like that until Lena abruptly broke the silence once more. "Wait. The room that they kept you in was on the second story, and you broke through my third floor window. How did you–" she trails off, her voice brimming with wonder as her head whipped around to meet Kara's eyes, only slightly startled when the cerulean irises are already planted on her.

Kara seems to catch the silent question, her reverent gaze never faltering from Lena's. "I walked on sky." She said it easily, like it wasn't something to marvel at.

Lena's jade eyes widened and her body went rigid with excitement, her palms meeting the plush of the bedding as she pushed herself up straighter on the bed, folding her legs under her body and turning to face Kara straight on. "You walked on the _sky_ " She asked incredulously. 

Kara nodded her head, shifting just a few inches so that she was facing Lena's head on as well. "Yeah." She smiled naively.

"Like you _flew_ " Lena asked, her voice laced with poorly concealed excitement. 

Kara just narrowed her eyebrows at the unfamiliar word, her eyes flickering over Lena's face before landing back on her eyes. "Sure?" She agreed unsurely.

"Flew, it's the past tense of flying. Like a bird." She pointed to the sky before tugging her hand out of Kara's, bringing both of them together to symbolise a bird flapping its wings. 

Kara smiled amusedly at the action before stopping Lena by darting her hands out and enveloping them in her own, her grin turning prideful as she lifted her chin and nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, I flew." 

Lena just stares at her silently for a few prolonged moments, her jade eyes wide as saucers, filled to the brim with amazement. She idly wishes that she could ask Kara what it was like, to be suspended in the wind with nothing but air holding onto you, to glide past sparkling cities, feel the cool air running through your hair and down your arm as you stare down at the twinkling Earth beneath you. But she knows that Kara won't be able to answer, at least not in the detail that Lena yearned for, so once she's done marveling, a grin breaks out onto her face as well. "Can you do it again?" She asks curiously. 

Kara just shrugs her shoulders, looking unconvinced of herself. "Don't know." She said, her words breaking off into a long yawn.

Lena thought she looked adorable like that– her long blonde locks mused from the wind that breathed life through them during her flight here, her face flushed with a pink blush envying her chest and crawling up her cheeks, her rose lips pouted and gleaming under the reflective moonlight bending over her features, her clothes disheveled and her body drowning in the ocean of blankets, making her appear much smaller than she was, and her ocean eyes weighed heavily down by the weight of the long day.

Lena chuckled. "You tired?"

All Kara could muster up was a long, drawn out hum of agreement as her eyes dripped closed and her body slumped back to rest against the headboard.

"Let's get some sleep, yeah?" Lena asked, though it wasn't much of a question as she all but dragged Kara down to the mattress with her.

Kara didn't mind though, just smiled lazily and hummed once more, not opening her eyes even as she scooted closer and enveloped Lena in her arms without warning, dragging the fragile human closer to her until Lena's burning cheek rested against the Kryptonians chest and Kara's chin rested on the top of her head.

Lena blushed beautifully, her cheeks warm with blood and her hands shaking with nerves as she rested them on Kara's waist gently– still not used to the affection that the alien gave her so easily. 

She wasn't sure that she ever would be, after twenty years of isolation and neglect.

But she let those thoughts melt away and be replaced by the comfort that she felt being in Kara's arms once more, feeling all her worries and fears go fleeting away into the shadows as Kara enveloped her in the warmth and sunshine that trailed behind the blonde like a second skin.

"Goodnight, darling." She muttered into the midnight air seconds before letting unconsciousness take ahold of her, though Kara was already fast asleep.

–––

When Lena woke up the second time, it was to a pounding on her front door.

She stirred awake under the repetitive and aggressive sounds vibrating throughout the house, her eyebrows furrowed together and her hold tightening on the slim waist in her arms. It took a few moments for her brain to register the noise for what it was and for her eyes to familiarize themselves with the blinding sunlight gleaming unbridled through the broken window.

She scrunched up her face as the noise continued on, only getting more persistent as it went ignored. Kara groaned in her sleep and tightened her arms around Lena's reclined form, her muscles stiff as her head drew up lazily, presumingly to look through the floors with her X-ray vision. Her eyebrows knitted together, her expression mirroring Lena's own as she muttered grumpily in her first language. 

It wasn't until the sound grew to the point that Lena was pretty positive her door was about to be knocked right off it's hinges, that she threw herself out of the comforting embrace of her warm mattress, batting Kara's insistent hands away as they tried to get her to stay in bed, and grabbing a silk black robe to throw over her negligee. A small, unintelligible chocked noise made her look back at Kara, who had sat up in bed, her arms braced upon the firm mattress and her cloudy blue eyes slightly dazed as they glared at Lena's bare legs with an unreadable expression.

"Stay here, Kara." She told the girl, not sparing her heated gaze a second thought as she scurried out of the room and down the stairs.

She was only a few feet from answering the door, her hand reaching out to grasp at the brass knob, when a sudden but familiar _woosh_ sound flew out of her peripheral vision, accompanied by the blurred image of blonde hair and tan skin. In the blink of an eye, her body was encompassed by strong, determined arms that were picking her up and spinning her away from the door so that she was facing the way that she had just came. She kicked her legs around grumpily and let out unintelligible sounds of protest until Kara set her down on the floor, allowing her to spin herself around to angrily glare at the alien.

"What the hell, Kara?!" She all but whined, soothing down her wind swept hair and glaring up at the stern looking blonde.

The banging grew more persistent then at the sound of voices, and Lena attempted to push past Kara to get to it, her ears ringing with the force of the tedious noise. But Kara stayed put, her sculpted arms crossed across her chest, looking a lot like her famous and powerful cousin in the signature stance, and her brows knitted together.

"Dangerous." Is all she uttered with a shake of her head. Lena's eyes narrowed and she studied the door behind Kara wearily, wondering what could be behind it for all of four seconds before Alex's voice rang out a warning for them to let her and her agents into the mansion.

She sighed and let the fear that had trickled down her spine subside. "It's fine Kara, I can handle them. Move." 

Kara did not move. Just narrowed her cerulean gaze and stubbornly shook her head. 

Lena sighed tiredly and opted to move around Kara, trying to slip into the space between her tall body and the wooden door, but the girls strong arms shot out and grabbed a hold of her waist, keeping her firmly in place and causing a blush to creep steadily up Lena's chest as the heiress gaped unbelievingly up at Kara. 

"Kara!" Her tone was an exasperated warning but the alien just frowned in response.

"M–Mean people." Kara told her, her grip firm but gentle as she took a step closer to Lena, making their chests bump against each other while she stared down at the raven haired beauty, attempting to lightly move her back without the brute force.

But Lena didn't budge, even as her hips burned where Kara's fingers were placed firmly on them and her heartbeat sped up to a rate that had Kara gazing down at her in even more concern than she had held just moments before. "We can't just ignore them, Kara. And I'm not powerless, so move out of my way." She said, sternly but not rudely as she pushed her flat palms futilely against Kara's chest.

But it was like attempting to move a brick wall and the alien didn't make any sign of moving, so Lena sighed tiredly and let her body slump slightly against Kara's own, much to exhausted to be fighting with a Kryptonian on only three hours of sleep. "If I let you stand behind me, will you let me open the door?" She asked, her voice slightly muffled by the torn up tank top hanging off Kara's body.

That seemed to be enough to satisfy the blonde because after only a few moments of contemplation on her end, she was taking a step back and releasing her hold on the youngest Luthor. Lena sighed at the loss of contact, stuffing down the feeling of disappointed that clawed desperately at her heart as she watched Kara take a few paces back, just out of sight of the door with her arms crossed and her blue eyes glaring.

Clearly she had caught on to the fact that Alex had attempted to kidnap her.

Lena took a few seconds to compose herself, letting her muscle memory take ahold as she straightened up into a rigid posture and placed the familiar, emotionless mask that she had grown accustomed to wearing upon her face. Then she opened the door, ignoring the fist that nearly flew into her face at the sudden movement as she instantly made eye contact with the lead agent standing in front of her. 

"Where is she?" Alex demanded, her voice like a string that had been pulled too tight. She tugged her hand back from it's mid-knock and managed to look composed over the anger slipping through her seams. 

"What? No 'Good Morning' for your favorite criminal?" Lena mocked, her arms crossing just under her breasts.

"You're harboring a fugitive, Miss Luthor. Hardly exciting." Alex reminded her with a firey glare.

"Oh, so some crimes do excite you then, Agent Danvers?" Lena mused smugly, enjoying the way she could practically see the smoke coming out of the brunette's ears. 

"Where. Is. She?" Alex demanded once more, her voice threatening as she leaned further into Lena's personal space. She could practically hear Kara tensing behind her.

"Who, Kara? Oh, she's inside." Lena drawled casually, her head tilting and her perfectly sculpted eyebrow raising. 

Alex made a noise of acknowledgement as she attempted to barge into her house once more, using her taller stature to try and bulldoze past Lena and trample into her house. But this time Lena expected the move, having already learned her prior lesson on keeping her gaurds so high that they touched the clouds when it regarded Kara's well-being, and instead of allowing the girl to overpower her, she rooted her bare feet onto the hardwood panels underneath her and shot her arm out to stop the brunette before she could take even a step further into her house. The agent's body smacked against her arm and grew even more rigid under the pretense of Lena touching her, her teeth barring as she took a small step back and looked down at Lena with such heat that it melded their gazes together.

"You don't actually have Kryptonite, do you?" Lena redirected the subject, her mind flashing with images of the glowing, emerald green smoke consuming every national news broadcast in the US - looking just as regal as it was lethal - flocking across their neighbouring city, rolling through buildings and devouring people until the entire town was suffocated in a mushroom cloud of acid. 

She remembers watching the breaking news at it occured, along with everybody else in the nation, her manicured fingernails turning to stubs under the relentless prowl of her anxious teeth as they awaited to see if there would be any survivors found in the poisonous green rubble. Watching with dilated pupils and clenched fists as the news feed played high-quality clips that captured the exact moment that the city exploded into nothing but a blanket of acid fog, on repeat until her brain grew desensitized to the sound of the thousands of pained screams ringing out in harmony together that accompanied it. 

She remembers her brother's sickening smile while he lounged on the couch besides her, sprawled out like a King sitting on his throne for the first time since he'd been overthrown, and the sound of his voice as he cackled. _"Doesn't it look just like your eyes, Lena? It is a rather beautiful sight, you'd have to admit."_

Alex seemed to have similar thoughts to her own, because her eyes flash with an unrecognizable emotion before she takes another small, subtle step back to put a few inches of distance between them so she's no longer looming over the youngest Luthor. The single, heavily packed word served as an ice cold reminder to the brunette and Lena could practically see the alarm bells ring all throughout her head as she assesses Lena once more– looking a whole lot more cautious than she had only seconds beforehand.

And Lena had never once taken any sense of pride in her last name since that fateful, death demised day. But in this moment, with the fretful gaurds looking at her like she had been the one to plant that Kryptonite bomb and take those thousands of innocent lives in the process, she couldn't help but feel a sickening sense of pure power surge throughout her body, straightening down her spine and flooding her lungs until she's forced to lift her chin in an arrogant display of supremacy.

"That's confidential, Luthor. Surely you can comprehend that." Alex bit out, anger throwing a thin veil over the fear that Lena had seen rip through her body only moments before. 

"That's fine, you don't have to respond for me to know the answer. You _don't_ have Kryptonite. You've never had Kryptonite. If you _did_ than you would've used it to capture Kara in the first place, and if you did than she wouldn't have been able to escape your facility and you wouldn't be here trying to bully me into submission right now–" Lena let a threatening smile cross her face then, watching in delight as it made the all the agent behind Alex shuffle on their feet and grip their guns harder. "But, while I truly hate to break it to you, that isn't going to work again. The _only_ reason that I allowed you to step all over me before was because I thought you had the power to hurt Kara. But you don't, which means that you don't have the power to hurt me either. I'm not _scared_ of you, Agent Danvers." Lena drawls.

Alex grits her teeth so hard that they looked as though they might just break off in her mouth, her fingers flexing almost threateningly against her gun as she inched closer to Lena. "You should be." She growled.

Lena just grinned at her in return, not sweetly but smugly. She gripped the doorframe harder in her hands and used the leverage to lean impossibly closer to Alex, only stopping when they were a breath away from each other. From this close, she could count every single one of Alex's mascara slathered eyelashes and witness, without doubt, the flicker of fear swirling in the depth of the brown orbs in front of her own. "I'd like to see you try." Lena rasped.

Alex stumbled back then, trying to be subtle about her need for distance as she took several paces back and nearly smacked into the burly agent standing behind her. Lena smirked at the sight, bathing in the victory she felt after being bullied into submission by the secret government agency; it didn't need to be spoken out loud for everybody in the vicinity to know that Lena was right, they couldn't actually harm her without probable cause, Luthor or not ( _especially_ since she was a Luthor even, nobody on the face of the planet wanted to be on the receiving end of that families rage,) and even if they wanted to, they had all learned their lesson first hand from the agent still currently in the infirmary with twenty-seven broken bones– you didn't touch Lena Luthor if you didn't want to deal with the rath of a pissed off and poorly restrained Kryptonian. 

"You need us, Superman would _never_ trust you." Alex said, her tone thinly veiling the amount of desperation behind the words.

Lena felt the boil in her veins come to a simmer at the confirmation, but she was still a Luthor and wouldn't make the mistake of letting them see her weaknesses once more– she had already done so once, and it had cost her Kara's safety. 

Her mother would've been so ashamed. 

So instead, she let her cocky facade turn regal; like a tiger stalking in the grass, getting ready to tear it's prey apart in the blink of an eye. "You're right. I do need you in order to contact Superman. But that is the _only_ thing I need you for, and you won't be getting anything else." 

Alex seemed to regain a hint of composure at Lena's confirmation, her back straightening out and her expression growing impassive once more. "We'll help you contact Superman, but you have to agree to let us keep tabs on Kara–" Lena's about to cut her off by slamming the door promptly in her face, but the brunette seems to anticipate it and raises her hand in a 'wait' motion. "We won't try to capture her once more, she can stay here with you. We both know that we can't force her to do anything she doesn't want to anyways, and against my and everybody else's better judgement, she has made it perfectly clear that she wants to be with _you._ " She says the last word like it's the most disgusting thing she's ever put in her mouth. Lena beams regardless.

" _But_ we want to do anual check-ins to guarantee that Kara is _safe_ and getting a proper hold on her life and her powers. She is possibly the strongest being to ever walk this planet, you have to understand that we can't just let that go unregulated." Alex chimed in, interrupting Lena's silent gloating.

Lena clenched her jaw at that, her eyes drawing up and examining Alex closely for any signs of deception– this was possibly the nicest and most civil that the agent had been to her since they met and she was finding it hard to trust her. "Safe?" She scoffed. "I'm not the one who trapped her in a cage."

Her tone seemed to tilt Alex further back towards the "mean and threatening" whirlpool that she had been bathing in whenever she was around Lena, but she tried to regulate her features and voice as she bit back. "Yeah well, atleast we're not Luthor's."

Lena felt the urge to fight back at the not-so-subtle jab, but schooled it in favor of her logic; the DEO wasn't just going to give up on watching over Kara, probably to make sure that Lena didn't use her to take over the world more than anything else. But it was begrudgingly wise of them to do so, Lena would have made the same move if she were in their position. And if she wanted to make Kara happy and reunite the blonde with her long lost cousin, than she knew she'd have to work with the government agency, albeit reluctantly. 

"I'll be present for every single one of these check-ins?" Lena asked, though it didn't sound like much of a question when it rolled off her tongue.

Alex gritted her teeth, her jaw clenching under the force of it, but she nodded her head in reluctant agreement. "Deal." She said before thrusting her hand forward to float idly between them, clearly waiting for Lena to shake it.

The heiress eyed her callused hand suspiciously, drawing between the brown orbs and stern arm a few times, but when it was clear that Alex wasn't going to leave without a conformational handshake, Lena swallowed her ill will just long enough to let their hands meet in the middle, shaking once before Alex was attempting to pull away like she'd just dipped her hand into a vault of lava. But Lena gripped the hand harder in her own, not allowing it to leave her grip so easily and meeting the questioning brown orbs that arose because of it head on, 

"You have a deal, Agent Danvers. But I swear to all that is holy, if I ever hear that you so much as hurt Kara's _feelings_ then I will reign such hell upon you and everybody else in that government regulated shit hole you call a respectable agency, that in comparison to _me,_ my brother will look like a gift from God himself." Lena all but growled, her tone low and threatening in a way that had Alex darting her hand out of Lena's in mere milliseconds, her eyes wide with fear as they examined the lethal Luthor. 

The agent's around her took a step forward as their hands tightened around the handles of their guns, rage and fear melding together in their eyes until a poorly restrained anger swept down across their faces. Lena can practically see the images that flash across their minds during that moment; warping this Lena into the one that everybody had witnessed on TV not too long ago, poised and impassive as she convicted her own brother to a lifetime in prison, inadvertently stamping his death sentence. Meeting the infamous Lex Luthor's gaze straight on as he silently plotted her death from across the room from her. 

That Lena, just as fierce as the one staring them down now.

She just glared at them impassively in response, not the least bit shaken by their silent threat, and it must've shown because in seconds Alex was raising her hand in a silent command to stop, her eyes never leaving Lena's as she does so. "Goodnight, Ms. Luthor." She says stiffly.

Lena smiles sweetly in response, a faux innocence to her expression that only proves to unnerve the agents further. "Goodnight, Agent Danvers." 

She watches as they walk away, waiting until they enter their car before she's shutting the door and letting her back slam against it, a genuine, pleased grin splitting her previously regal expression for the first time since she'd answered the door. Kara seems lost on the conversation, but at Lena's smile, she smiles– and then they're just stuck standing there, staring dopely at each other with grins half the size of their faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all really think kal-el would let them have kryptonite only a month or so after it was used to kill thousands of ppl? not in this plotline baby.
> 
> thank you so much for all the love and comments, I appreciate them all more than you know! <3


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